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Kazakhstan goes to polls

— PHOTO: AP

A Kazakh election official puts in place a voting box at a polling station in Astana on Saturday.

ASTANA (Kazakhstan): Oil-rich Kazakhstan, the most prosperous country in ex-Soviet Central Asia, voted on Sunday in a presidential election widely expected to give Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has led the country for the last 16 years, another seven-year term. Mr. Nazarbayev often shows an authoritarian streak and Opposition candidates claim their campaigns have been hindered by the theft of campaign materials, seizure of newspapers supporting them and being denied attractive venues to hold rallies. His two previous election victories were widely criticised as undemocratic. Mr. Nazarbayev, after voting on Sunday in the capital Astana, said ``this year's elections are being held in unprecedented democratic conditions.'' The ITAR-Tass news agency later reported that Valdimir Rushailo, head of the monitoring mission of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which includes most ex-Soviet countries, said observers had noted some violations at the station where Mr. Nazarbayev voted, including one person casting two ballots into a box. — AP

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