The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Kazakhstan has announced the preliminary results of an Oct. 6 national referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant.
“As of 8 a.m. of Oct. 7, the votes at 10,323 polling stations in all regions of the country and abroad have been tallied,” said CEC Chairman Nurlan Abdirov at an Oct. 7 press briefing.
A total of 12,284,487 Kazakh citizens were eligible to participate in the vote. Of this, 7,820,204 citizens cast their ballots, representing a 63.66% voter turnout.
The question posed to the citizens was whether they supported the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country. Based on the preliminary results, an overwhelming majority of voters, totaling 5,561,937 people or 71.12%, voted in favor of the construction. Conversely, 2,045,271 people, or 26.15%, voted against the nuclear power plant.
Out of the total votes, 130,267 ballots were deemed invalid. Additionally, 82,729 ballots were recognized as valid but were not included in the final tally because voters had marked two answers instead of one, which disqualified their ballots.
Voting patterns vary across the regions. The Turkistan Region recorded the highest number of votes in favor, with 693,766 citizens supporting the nuclear plant and 178,148 voting against it. The Almaty Region followed closely, where 495,291 voters supported the construction and 174,622 opposed it.
Abdirov said the final results will be officially announced during the CEC meeting, and the exact date and time will be announced later.