Given the highly volatile ethnic mix of Kazakhstan and the lurking destabilizing effect of foreign interests longing for abundant mineral resources, a strong majority for stability over freedom is hardly surprising. Nonetheless, 98% seems very much out of this world. But with the "right" mix of fearmongering and early divide-and-conquer intervention when a moderate opposition ist starting to organize? Certainly not unthinkable. There's so much more to a healthy democracy than not miscounting the votes.

I don't know why you're downvoted.

I agree a hundred percent. People from stable democracies tends to underestimate how afraid people can be of chaos and how easy it is for some goverment to associate democracy with chaos.

When a moderate opposition starts to organize, a non-moderate one (or one that takes advantage of ethnic fault lines) does too.