Kazakhstan's incumbent president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, won about 95 percent of the vote in Sunday's snap presidential election, according to two exit polls.
The Association of Sociologists and Political Scientists (ASIP) poll gives Nazarbayev 94.82 percent, followed by Patriots Party Senator Gani Kasimov 2.17 percent, Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan candidate Zhambyl Ahmetbekov 1.57 percent, and Tabigat environmental group leader Mels Eleusizov 1.44 percent.
About 110,000 people were surveyed, or around 1.2 percent of voters.
A second poll, of 50,000 people at 333 polling stations by the Democracy Institute, gave Nazarbayev 95.1 percent of the vote.
Election observers reported no major violations on polling day, although it was noted that Nazarbayev's campaign was far more prominent than any of his rivals.
"We visited several sites in and near Astana, and I did not see any gross violations there," said Alexander Brod, a member of Russia's Public Chamber who monitored the election.
"In the pre-election period we found a predominance of campaign material from the incumbent president," the Russian human rights activist added.
Three opposition parties boycotted the election, saying holding the vote with two months' warning did not give them time to mount a serious challenge to the incumbent, who has been in power in Kazakhstan since before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Despite the call for a boycott, the Central Election Commission reported turnout of 89.8 percent.
Nazarbayev, 70, called the early poll after rejecting parliament's vote for a referendum to extend his term until 2020, bypassing presidential elections scheduled for 2012 and 2017.
ALMATY, April 3 (RIA Novosti)
