The ruling party of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev Monday won a landslide victory with over 80 percent of the vote in parliamentary polls which observers said failed to meet democratic standards. Two nominally opposition groups won seats for the first time in the Kazakh parliament after Sunday’s elections which veteran leader Nazarbayev hoped would breathe fresh life into politics while maintaining stability. But the only clearly anti-government party — the All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) which failed to make parliament — denounced the elections as among the dirtiest ever in Kazakhstan and vowed street protests. Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party won 80.74 percent of the vote in the polls, the central election commission announced. “This is our shared victory,” Nazarbayev told his supporters after the results were announced. “This means that the people of Kazakhstan will continue supporting our course of stability and unity.” Nur Otan will be joined in parliament by the pro-business Ak Zhol (Bright Path) party which garnered 7.46 percent of the vote and the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan — a largely pro-government group that won 7.2 percent.
