CRI听力:Nursultan Nazarbayev Re-elected as Kazakh President

Preliminary results show that incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won Kazakhstan's presidential election, granting him another five years in office.

According to Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission, the ruling Nur Otan party candidate Nazarbayev won 97.7 percent of the votes.

Nazarbayev expressed his appreciation to his voters.

"We have demonstrated to the whole world that Kazakhstan's political culture means unity, responsibility. Everyone came to polling stations. Of course to elect a president means to elect one's future. So they came to vote for their future, each one of them having his own hopes. They wanted to express them, they came and expressed them. Big thanks and deep bow to all Kazakh citizens."

Nazarbayev has promised to implement reforms in his next term.

He says his first step is to create a commission to implement all five institutional reforms that he has announced.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated Nazarbayev on his re-election.

In a message, the Chinese leader said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Kazakhstan relations, and expressed his willingness to join hands with Nazarbayev to bring the ties to a new level.

Nazarbayev is the first and thus far only president of Kazakhstan since the country's independence in 1991.

He has kept a support rate of more than 90 percent in all previous elections.