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Summary The per capita gross domestic product in Kazakhstan, at more than $9,000.
A promise of stability in a volatile region won veteran Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev an overwhelming victory in a snap presidential election criticised by European monitors for irregularities.Nazarbayev, 70, won another five years at the helm of Central Asias largest economy by pledging peace and economic growth in the predominantly Muslim country, where the echo of popular revolutions across the Arab world is almost inaudible. The former steelworker, who has overseen market reforms and more than 120 billion US dollars in foreign investment during two decades in power, won a resounding 95.5 percent of votes to surpass the 91.2 percent he received in the previous presidential vote in 2005.The per capita gross domestic product in Kazakhstan, at more than $9,000, has risen twelvefold since 1993 and is on a par with Malaysia. Living standards are the highest in Central Asia, where poverty, ethnic tension, radical Islam and the drug trade unsettle neighbours.By winning an election devoid of any challenge, one of three opposing candidates even voted for him -- Nazarbayev has tightened his grip on the vast, oil-rich country of 16.4 million people, which covers an area five times the size of France.
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