Kazakhstan voted on Sunday in an election designed to put a second party in parliament and ease growing discontent after deadly riots shook the country's image of stability.
No one doubts veteran President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party will win by a landslide. The second-placed party will also be guaranteed a presence in the 107-seat chamber, whether or not it clears the 7 percent entry threshold.
But Nazarbayev's most critical opponents have been barred from standing, and the party expected to come second is a pro-business group led by a former ruling party member.
"Top-down changes are practically impossible in Kazakhstan," said opposition politician Bolat Abilov. "The president, the ruling party and their circle are too convinced they are right."
Nazarbayev, 71, in power since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, remains overwhelmingly popular throughout most of his mainly Muslim country of 16.7 million people.
Central Asia's largest economy and oil producer, Kazakhstan's relative wealth has long helped it avoid the sort of unrest seen in other former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
But complaints have grown that many have remained poor while an elite few grew rich. Anger erupted last month in the remote western region of Mangistau, where oilmen sacked by their state-owned employers had been protesting for seven months.
Officials say 17 people were killed in clashes during which police fired live rounds. Some residents of Zhanaozen, a dusty oil town 150 km (90 miles) from the Caspian Sea, believe the death toll was higher. A state of emergency remains in place.
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