Tokayev wins Kazakhstan's presidential election, exit polls say

NUR-SULTAN - Kazakhstan's incumbent President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has won the country's presidential election by gaining some 70 percent of the votes, the national exit poll results showed Sunday.

The exit poll conducted by Kazakhstan's Public Opinion Research Institute suggested that Tokayev is taking a lead in the presidential race by garnering 70.13 percent of the votes, followed by Amirzhan Kosanov from the United National Patriotic Movement "Ult tagdyry" with 15.39 percent of the votes.

Meanwhile, according to the exit poll of the LLP Youth Research Institute, 69.94 percent of the voters cast their votes for Tokayev, and 14.96 percent for Kosanov.

In accordance with the constitution of Kazakhstan, the candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the votes shall be considered elected.

Voting for the presidential election in Kazakhstan kicked off at 07:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) and ended at 09:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) earlier in the day.