By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) – Voting in Sunday’s snap presidential elections in Kazakhstan ended at 10 p.m. Astana time (1600GMT).
According to the Kazakh Central Election Committee, as of 10 p.m., turnout was over 69%, with nearly 8.3 million of almost 12 million eligible voters casting ballots.
While domestic voting has concluded, 57 polling stations abroad continue their work, according to the state-run Kazinform news agency.
Voting procedures in all 17 administrative regions of the country began at 7 a.m. Astana time (0100GMT).
“More than 12,000 Kazakh citizens will be able to vote at 68 polling stations in 53 countries,” Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov announced last week.
The elections put incumbent President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev against five other presidential candidates in the country’s seventh presidential race.
The call for early elections was made by Tokayev in late September with a decree saying the polls would launch "an electoral cycle that will lead to a radical reset of the entire political system."
The announcement of early elections came the day after Tokayev approved a constitutional amendment to increase the presidential term to seven years from five while barring future presidents from serving a second term.
Another move was changing the capital’s name back to Astana, after it was changed from Astana to Nur-Sultan in 2019 in tribute to outgoing President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Tokayev took over as president in March 2019, succeeding Nazarbayev, who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian nation for three decades.
Preliminary election results are expected to be announced on Monday and Tuesday, according to a Kazakh Foreign Ministry statement.