ASTANA:

The echo of popular revolutions in the Arab world is almost inaudible in the predominantly Muslim nation, where Nazarbayev is popular for making stability his main motto, overseeing market reforms and attracting more than $120 billion in foreign investment. He even secured the vote of a rival candidate.

But he is challenged by critics at home and rapped by the West for his authoritarian methods.

Nazarbayev, 70, has ruled Kazakhstan since Soviet days, tolerating little dissent.

Kazakhstan has never held an election judged free or fair by international monitors.

Nazarbayev called Sunday's vote almost two years before his term had been due to end, rejecting a plan for a referendum to extend his reign unchallenged until 2020.

Living standards in Kazakhstan are higher than elsewhere in Central Asia, a volatile region bordering Afghanistan unsettled by poverty, ethnic tensions, radical Islam and the drug trade.

"Together we will vote for stability in our society, for friendship in our polyethnic nation, for our future and for the future of our children," Nazarbayev said after casting his vote in the national library in the showpiece capital Astana.

"Today's vote of our citizens will stress our unity and our aspiration to implement everything that was mapped out in my state-of-the-nation address," he said, making clear he wanted to oversee an industrialisation drive over the next decade to 2020.