Hundreds arrested in protests against stage managed Kazakhstan elections

Hundreds of people have been arrested in Kazakhstan while protesting against a stage-managed election that they say will deprive them of a political voice.

Euronews reports that 12 million registered electors of Kazakhstan are voting to choose a new President today, but there’s little suspense over who’s going to win.

Voters have been going to the polls to elect a successor to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the 78-year-old who ruled for three decades before resigning this year.

The Guardian reports that masked, black-clad riot police arrested at least 200 peaceful demonstrators amid scuffles. Chris Rickleton, a British journalist with Agence France-Presse, was briefly detained and sustained a black eye during his arrest.

Tokayev tried to play down the protests. It was the “people’s choice” to protest, though elections should not be a “battlefield”, he said after casting his vote in the capital, Nur-Sultan, which was called Astana until March, when Tokayev ordered that it be renamed after Nazarbayev. Scores of demonstrators were also arrested in the city on election day.

Power in the oil and mineral-rich former Soviet republic is jealously guarded by the ruling Nur Otan party, and it’s never held an election that’s been judged free and fair by independent observers.

The party controls official media channels, access to the internet is limited and police regularly arrest those who attend opposition gatherings.

Nur Otan’s candidate is the interim president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the only real question hanging over Sunday’s vote is what his winning margin will be.

Via The Guardian / Euronews