Kazakhstan's ruling party swept to victory in an opposition-free parliamentary election Sunday, cementing the Central Asian country's authoritarian trajectory despite promises of reform.
An exit poll by government-sanctioned pollster Public Opinion gave the Nur Otan party nearly 72% of the ballot and showed two other pro-government parties crossing the 7% vote threshold.
But exit polls are tightly controlled in Kazakhstan, an ex-Soviet country that has never held an election deemed free or fair by Western vote monitors.
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