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Dozens Detained in Kazakhstan As Nazarbaev's Chosen Successor Set to Win
Election

RFE/RL's Kazakh Service

   Police across Kazakhstan have detained dozens of protesters as the
   country holds a snap presidential election, with the chosen successor
   of authoritarian ex-President Nursultan Nazarbaev expected to win
   easily.

   More than 100 protesters were detained in the in Astana Square in
   Kazakhstan's largest city of Almaty as they were calling for a boycott
   of the election in which Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev is running against six
   government-approved candidates.

   Several foreign and local journalists, including RFE/RL reporter Pyotr
   Trotsenko, were also briefly detained in Almaty.

   Security measures have been stepped up in Almaty, with dozens of police
   officers deployed in Astana Square and elsewhere in the city, RFE/RL
   correspondents in Kazakhstan report.

   In the capital, Nur-Sultan -- newly renamed after the former president
   -- police detained dozens of opposition supporters holding a protest
   rally near the Palace of Youth, as well as several journalists covering
   the event.

   RFE/RL correspondent Sania Toiken is among those detained in the
   capital.

   The protesters in Nur-Sultan were calling for free and fair elections
   and were holding blue balloons, a sign of support for a banned
   opposition group, Kazakhstan's Democratic Choice (DVK).

   The movement's leader is Mukhtar Ablyazov, a vocal critic of Nazarbaev
   and his government, who lives in self-imposed exile in France. Ablyazov
   has urged people in the past to hold blue balloons at anti-government
   rallies.

   Police have deployed about 10 buses near the Palace of Youth and also
   blocked the Respublika and Abai streets near at the city center.

   Meanwhile, 20 protesters were detained in the southern city of
   Shymkent.

   Most polling stations opened at 7 a.m. and will close at 8 p.m. on June
   9. Some polls opened an hour earlier, and 65 stations outside the
   country are also taking ballots.

   Toqaev, 66, was tapped by longtime authoritarian President Nazarbaev as
   his successor when he stepped down on March 19 after nearly 30 years
   leading the energy-rich country, the largest in Central Asia.

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