ASTANA, December 4 (RIA Novosti) - Voting opened in the oil-rich Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan in a presidential election this Sunday.
The Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan registered five candidates for the president's post, including the incumbent leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has run the republic for 16 years and opposition leader Zharmakhan Tyukbai.
"The elections will be valid with any electoral turnout," Central Election Commission Chairman Onalsyn Zhumabekov said. He added that the commission would draw up the election's first preliminary results in the first half of the day on December 5. A candidate must gain more than 50% of the votes to win the election.
