Kazakhstan

Some 300 opposition activists gathered in the country’s capital for a demonstration urging people to boycott the presidential elections slated next month in a bid to undermine the poll’s legitimacy, Reuters says. The protesters argued that the April 3 election will likely be won by current President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been in power since 1989.

“It’s an illusion of democracy,” Reuters quotes Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, head of the Ar.Rukh.Khak civic movement. “We do not want to participate in this farce. If less than half of the electorate shows up, then where is his legitimacy?”