2022 Kazakh presidential election
Snap presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 20 November 2022 to elect the President of Kazakhstan. This was the seventh presidential election since Kazakhstan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Incumbent president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, an Independent, was re-elected for a second term in a landslide, receiving 81% of the vote. His closest challenger, Jiguli Dairabaev of the Auyl Party, received just 3% of the vote, marking the first time since 2015 that all candidates other than the incumbent president failed to garner 5% or more of the vote. This was the first election since 1999 in which the "against all" option was included on the ballot paper. It received 6% of the total vote. Voter turnout was 69%, the lowest ever in a Kazakh presidential election. Originally scheduled for December 2024, President Tokayev called for snap presidential elections in autumn 2022 in his annual State of the Nation Address in September 2022, where he also proposed changing the presidential term to a nonrenewable seven-year term through a constitutional amendment, and announced his intention to run for a second five-year term. However, this led to questions about the legality of Tokayev's proposals regarding his term of office, due to speculation that this would allow him to serve more than two terms as president. As a result, Tokayev's proposed constitutional amendments were ratified and signed into law prior to the vote, with Tokayev himself then setting the election date by presidential decree on 21 September. A total of 12 candidates were nominated for the election, with just six qualifying for the ballot, including Qaraqat Äbden (National Alliance of Professional Social Workers) and Saltanat Tursynbekova (QA–DJ). Multiple female presidential candidates appeared on the ballot for the first time. Tokayev was supported by the People's Coalition, an electoral alliance formed by several pro-government parties as well as various public associations. Jiguli Dairabaev was nominated by the Auyl People's Democratic Patriotic Party, the only pro-government party in Kazakhstan to contest the election. Nūrjan Ältaev, a former Amanat deputy and a member of the divided Coalition of Democratic Forces was barred from running by court order. This left Nurlan Auesbaev from the Nationwide Social Democratic Party to become the sole opposition candidate in the election. Virtually all presidential contestants challenging Tokayev were described as "pocket candidates", due to their relative obscurity and lack of popularity. The elections took place following the 2022 Kazakh unrest and the subsequent constitutional referendum. Campaigning focused on COVID-induced inflation, political reforms, democratization, and combating oligarchy. Additional issues included the public usage of the Kazakh language, as well as socioeconomic concerns on agriculture, family life, and feminism. Protests against the legitimacy of the election faced crackdowns and prosecution by the Kazakh government. Reports prevailed of internet blackouts, DDoS attacks, and government pressure towards independent Kazakh media. Tokayev was widely expected to win the election. Exit polls indicated he received a majority of the vote. Tokayev was declared the winner in the early morning of 21 November 2022 after the preliminary