Kazakh leader headed for huge election victory, exit polls show

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was headed for a landslide victory in a snap election on Sunday, according to exit polls, solidifying his grip on power less than a year after he sidelined his long-ruling predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The former diplomat, who came to power in 2019 as Nazarbayev's hand-picked successor when the Central Asian nation's only ruler since the Soviet era stepped down, broke with his ex-patron after a January uprising that Tokayev called a coup attempt.

A new election victory - polls showed him winning between 82% and 85% of the vote - will give Tokayev, 69, the sort of overwhelming personal mandate that Nazarbayev routinely secured as he built a personality cult over five successive terms.