President Nursultan Nazarbayev (70) has cruised to a comfortable victory in the week end election bagging 95.5 percent of the votes polled. His victory doesn’t defy predictions or ground realities. 

There are allegations that the incumbent president secured another mandate for five years as the local officials marshaled university students to the polling centres to vote in his favour. Opposition politicians did not enter the fray and even called for a boycott of the election. Final turn out shows the call made little impact.

Early voters and 18-year-olds casting their ballot for the first time were rewarded with household goods, such as food blenders and electric kettles.

Nazarbayev has been leading the country virtually unchallenged since Kazakhstan emerged as an impendent republic after the break –up of Soviet Union. His present term was set to end in 2012 but he called for early elections amidst speculation that he was trying to ward off any local variation of Jasmine revolution.

This is clear from what the Prime Minister Karim Masimov said in a post-verdict interview. “The strong presidential mandate would ensure the success of reforms needed to boost and diversify our oil-reliant economy”, he was quoted as saying in media dispatches.

Nazarbayev ran his campaign on the theme of stability. In fact this has been his plank for a long while and it has paid good dividends with Kazakhstan attracting FDI of more than $120 billion.