Hundreds held as Kazakhs vote

Police in Kazakhstan arrested hundreds of opposition protesters yesterday at polls to elect the country’s first new president in 30 years following the departure of historic leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. His hand-picked successor Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, 66 was a shoo-in to win the vote contested by six other candidates. Tokayev’s rivals in the polls that opened at 0100 GMT included one low-key opposition figure, but none is widely known in Muslim-majority Kazakhstan.