APRIL 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nursultan Nazarbayev got what he wanted from Kazakhstan’s presidential election on April 3.

The Central Election Committee said he won with 95% of the vote. So, while rulers in the Middle East contend with popular uprisings, Nazarbayev has won a huge mandate to extend his 20 year rule by another five years.

But although support for Nazarbayev is high, the detail shows his victory may not have been as comprehensive as the headline figures suggest.

The main opposition boycotted the vote and said Nazarbayev’s three challengers were put up by the authorities to give the election a veneer of competition and despite an official turnout of 90%, a Conway Bulletin correspondent in Almaty found plenty of people who had not voted.

People also said they had been coerced into voting. In Shymkent, a city in southern Kazakhstan, a construction worker called Nazir said: “They told us that if we didn’t vote we would not be paid. So, we voted.”

International election monitors also said they had recorded incidences of ballot stuffing and intimidation. But in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on March 31, Nazarbayev wrote described Kazakhstan’s economic achievements and appeared to pre-empt criticism of the vote.

“It took the great democracies of the world centuries to develop,” he said. “We are not going to become a fully developed democracy overnight. But we have proved that we can deliver on our big ambitions.”

JAN. 17 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan says 5m people have signed a petition asking for a referendum to allow President Nursultan Nazarbayev to rule unchallenged until 2020.

But where are these 5m people? On the day parliament voted to back the petition I spoke to people on the snowy streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city, but couldn’t find anybody who had been asked to signed it. The petition apparently originated from the eastern city of Ust-Kamenogorsk but some analysts have suggested the 5m signatures are fiction, needed only to legitimise political will.

Romil, a 20-year-old trainee dentist, gave his opinion. And it was typical. “Of course it’s a good thing if Nazarbayev remains in power. He is a good, strong leader,” he said. “But I haven’t signed this petition and I don’t know anybody who has.”

Next along the path was Victoria, a 30-year-old ethnic Russian teacher. She also thought Mr Nazarbayev was a good leader but had also not been asked to sign the petition.

“I am worried though that Nazarbayev is getting old and it’s not good to change the Constitution,” she said. Mr Nazarbayev is 70-years-old.

Others compared the stability that Kazakhstan was enjoying to the recent upheavals in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. “You know it’s a good thing if Nazarbayev continues. He is strong and a good leader. Just look at Kyrgyzstan for what happens without a good leader,” said Svetlana, who was out with her 4-year-old granddaughter.

And so it continued. Everybody thought it was a good idea that Mr Nazarabyev remained in power, most thought it would be good to scrap elections but nobody had been asked to sign the petition.