AFP :
Police in Kazakhstan arrested hundreds of opposition protesters Sunday at polls to elect the country’s first new president in 30 years following the departure of historic leader Nursultan Nazarbayev.
His hand-picked successor Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, 66 was a shoo-in to win the vote contested by six other candidates.
But the day was marked by the biggest protests the Central Asian country has seen in three years.
AFP correspondents in Kazakhstan’s two main cities Nur-Sultan and Almaty witnessed hundreds of arrests.
Two AFP journalists were among those
detained by police in the largest city Almaty where policebroke up a protest involving several hundred people.
One AFP correspondent was taken to a police station before being released while another had video equipment confiscated by police.
In Almaty, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Petr Trotsenko, and Marius Fossum from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee rights NGO were also detained. Both were later released by police.
In Nur-Sultan, another Radio Free Europe journalist Saniya Toiken was held by police before being released.
Nazarbayev’s foreign-based political nemesis, fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov had called for protests in cities across the nation on Sunday and Monday.
Police in Kazakhstan arrested hundreds of opposition protesters Sunday at polls to elect the country’s first new president in 30 years following the departure of historic leader Nursultan Nazarbayev.
His hand-picked successor Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, 66 was a shoo-in to win the vote contested by six other candidates.
But the day was marked by the biggest protests the Central Asian country has seen in three years.
AFP correspondents in Kazakhstan’s two main cities Nur-Sultan and Almaty witnessed hundreds of arrests.
Two AFP journalists were among those
detained by police in the largest city Almaty where policebroke up a protest involving several hundred people.
One AFP correspondent was taken to a police station before being released while another had video equipment confiscated by police.
In Almaty, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Petr Trotsenko, and Marius Fossum from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee rights NGO were also detained. Both were later released by police.
In Nur-Sultan, another Radio Free Europe journalist Saniya Toiken was held by police before being released.
Nazarbayev’s foreign-based political nemesis, fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov had called for protests in cities across the nation on Sunday and Monday.
