Kazakh President wins re-election with 97.7 percent

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won re-election with 97.7 percent of the vote in a poll where opposition parties in the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic did not field a candidate, the electoral commission said Monday.

Nazarbayev, who has ruled the huge Central Asian country since before the Soviet breakup in 1991, will start a fifth term.

The Central Election Commission claimed a record turnout of 95.22 percent in Sunday’s election.