Kazakh President Nazarbayev prepares for inauguration in Astana

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev will be inaugurated on Friday in the country’s capital of Astana after a landslide victory in early presidential election last Sunday.

The country’s Central Election Commission announced on Tuesday the final results of the election saying that veteran leader Nazarbayev won 95.5% of the vote.

The inauguration will be held in the capita’s Palace of Independence and will be attended by foreign ambassadors accredited in Kazakhstan.

Nazarbayev – in office since 1989 and granted the official title of “leader of the nation” by parliament last year – faced no challenge at Sunday’s polls.

Under a 2007 constitutional amendment there is no limit to the number of terms he can serve.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the election failed to meet international democratic standards, and one of the country’s opposition parties, Azat, has called for a probe into “mass irregularities” in the run-up to the April 3 vote.

Three other presidential candidates have complained of not having enough time to prepare for the elections, after Nazarbayev announced early polls in February.

ASTАNA, April 8 (RIA Novosti)

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