(UTV|COLOMBO) – Police in Kazakhstan have arrested hundreds of people protesting against a poll to elect the country’s first new president in 30 years.
The election was called after long-time leader, 78-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, stepped down in March.
His hand-picked successor, interim President Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, is widely expected to win the vote.
Protesters claimed the poll was not free and fair. But Mr Tokayev described the process as democratic and open.
Exit polls suggest 66-year-old Mr Tokayev, a former director-general of the United Nations Office in Geneva, won the election with 70% of the vote.
Large-scale protests – the biggest the country has seen in years – have been reported in Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan, and its largest city Almaty.
Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, and several journalists and activists monitoring them, were detained by police.
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