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Energy-rich Kazakhstan's incumbent strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev scored a crushing victory in Sunday's one-sided presidential ballot, taking 97.5% of the vote to win a fifth consecutive term, an exit poll showed.
The exit poll carried out by the Institute for Democracy, a research company based in the authoritarian state, also showed Nazarbayev's closest competitor Turgun Syzdykov as scoring 1.8% of the ballot and third candidate Abelgazy Kusainov taking 0.63%.
Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission (CEC) claimed a record voter turnout of 95.11% for the poll whose result was never in doubt.
The CEC is expected to present preliminary results on Monday.
The marginalised opposition did not field a candidate for the election and 74-year-old Nazarbayev stood against two figures widely seen as pro-government.
Nazarbayev has ruled the vast Central Asian country since before the breakup of the USSR in 1991. His new five-year term will take him to three decades as leader.
He cast his ballot to loud applause in the capital Astana, saying he was confident Kazakhstan's people would back his campaign.
"I am sure Kazakhstan's people will vote primarily for the stable development of our state and the improvement of people's lives, as well as the stability of the state and in support of the policies the country has implemented under my leadership," Nazarbayev told journalists.
"I am confident of this."
Many citizens standing in long, snaking queues at polling stations in Astana and in the largest city Almaty cited a "civic duty" to vote.
Gulmira Bardygulova, a student in Almaty, said she had voted for Nazarbayev to save the country from political turmoil.
"Young people themselves understand their duty -- nobody is forcing us to vote. We have seen revolutions in Kyrgyzstan, war in Ukraine. Nobody wants this future for Kazakhstan."
Some, though, complained of having been pressured to vote by their employers.
In Astana, one voter who refused to give her name but said she worked as a clerk complained everybody in her office had been rung up by a line manager and asked to vote.
"Of course I voted for Nazarbayev," she said. "Who are the other two?"
One of the two candidates to stand against Nazarbayev, Syzdykov, is a 68-year-old former provincial official who campaigned on an anti-globalisation platform, railing against Hollywood, hamburgers and computer games. He represents the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan.
