President Tokayef Wins Kazakh Election: Receives 81.3 Percent of Votes, Secures Second Period

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Wikimedia Commons Kremlin.ru The Presidential Press and Information Office 2

JAKARTA - Incumbent Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev secured a second term in Sunday's snap election, winning 81.31 percent of the vote, according to preliminary data from the country's Central Electoral Commission Monday.

He is widely expected to extend his rule over the oil-rich nation for another seven years, with a strong mandate to continue his increasingly independent foreign policy as the former Soviet republic faces a Russo-Ukrainian crisis.

"We can say that people have expressed reassuring confidence in me as president and all of you", Tokayev, 69, told his staff earlier, referring to the poll results that favored him.

The campaign will "go down in history", the former diplomat added.

Turnout was 69.44 percent, with the other five candidates scoring low single digits, data showed. The voter's second most popular choice was to "turn down everyone" with 5.8 percent of the ballot.

Spurred on by the exit poll, several other Central Asian leaders congratulated Tokayev on Monday ahead of the preliminary results.

Tokayev won his first election in 2019 with the support of his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, both fell this year amid violent unrest in the nation of 20 million.

Sunday's vote consolidated his power as an independent leader.