Kazakhstan leader trouncing election foe, early results say

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled oil-rich Kazakhstan since Soviet times, was reelected yesterday by an overwhelming majority, according to preliminary results and exit polls.

The Central Elections Commission said that Nazarbayev had won 91 percent of votes in yesterday's elections, according to the initial count. His closest challenger, Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, got 6.6 percent.

Three exit polls announced earlier today had given Nazarbayev more than 80 percent of the vote. Those polls were expected to undermine any opposition opportunity to claim a miscount in the presidential balloting in Central Asia's most prosperous nation. But complaints are still expected that the comparatively authoritarian government did not allow a genuinely free vote.

The assessment of international election observers is expected to play a key role in how the opposition responds to the elections. A prominent mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was due to issue its initial assessment of the vote today, as was a group of observers from the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States.

If the early results are affirmed, Nazarbayez would have an overwhelming mandate for a new seven-year term.

Nazarbayev, who has ruled for 16 years, often shows an authoritarian streak, and opposition candidates contend their campaigns have been hindered by the theft of campaign materials, seizure of newspapers backing them, and denial of attractive sites to hold rallies.

Nazarbayev, whose two previous election victories were widely criticized as undemocratic, said, ''This year's elections are being held in unprecedented democratic conditions."

Seventy-five percent of the electorate, about 6.7 million people, voted, according to the Central Elections Commission.

Bolat Abilov, campaign chief for Tuyakbai, said late yesterday that Tuyakbai observers saw many violations, including people being excluded from voter lists and some voters being ordered to cast ballots for Nazarbayev.

Kazakh officials have alleged that the opposition plans postelection disturbances similar to protests in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan that helped bring opposition figures to power.

Tuyakbai said that if there is evidence of election fraud, he and his supporters ''will use all legal means to resist."

Kazakhstan, four times the size of Texas and the world's ninth-largest country by area, has vast oil and gas reserves that are a potential alternative to Middle East petroleum, and its stability matters greatly to the United States and Western Europe.

Under Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan has maneuvered among Washington, Moscow, and Beijing.

With Russia and China, it is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that has called for US bases in the region to be closed.

At the same time, a small Kazakh contingent is part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.