Kazakhs vote in newly competitive parliamentary election

Voters in Kazakhstan have gone to the polls to choose lawmakers in the lower house of parliament which is being reconfigured in the wake of deadly unrest that gripped the resource-rich Central Asian nation a year ago. The electoral field was unusually large with two newly registered parties and hundreds of individual candidates joining the race. But turnout on Sunday appeared relatively unenthusiastic. Election authorities said that about 54% of eligible voter cast ballots. The early election came on the fourth anniversary of the resignation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. He had led Kazakhstan since independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and established immense influence.