Azernews.Az

ASTANA – The Kazakh Central Election Commission on Friday approved President Nursultan Nazarbayev's candidacy in the upcoming elections slated for April, Xinhua reported.

The commission approved the candidacy of Nazarbayev, head of the ruling Nur Otan party, after a vote during a plenary meeting.

According to the election rules of the Central Asian nation, each candidate needs to collect no less than 91,010 voter signatures to run a campaign.

It was reported that a total of 717,000 supporters, or 8 percent of the country's voters, have signed their names in favor of Nazarbayev, who was nominated last week at the ruling party's 13th session as the party's candidate to run in the polls.

Nazarbayev, 70, became the first elected Kazakh president in 1991 after the country's independence from the former Soviet Union. He won a referendum in 1995 on extending his term to 2000, and also won elections in 1999 and 2005.

In 2007, the parliament amended the law to allow Nazarbayev to run for the presidency for an unlimited number of times. His current term will expire in 2012.

Nazarbayev signed a decree on Feb. 4 to set April 3 at the date for early presidential elections.