Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has served as President of Kazakhstan since the fall of the Soviet Union's empire in 1991, is expected to easily win re-election today over three nominal opposition candidates.
Reports from Reuters indicate that over 76.9% of eligible citizens have voted, even though the outcome will probably mirror that of 2005 when Nazarbayev won with 91.1% of the vote. His closest opponent took 6.6% of the vote home that year, which was 5.5% worse than Nazarbayev's runner-up in 1999.
Candidates, regardless of allegiance, are allowed to run in Kazakhstan, but such campaigns are generally useless.
I cannot stand the notion of a President without term limits, who can serve for decades until death because of his popularity, but considering Nazarbayev has targeted Islamic terrorists in his country - I can tolerate his regime to a point.
What say you?
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