President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev is seen in this file photo. EFE/File
Astana, Mar 30 (EFE).- The three candidates competing in Kazakhstan's April 26 presidential election, including the incumbent, each gained important experience in regional politics before making the jump to the national level.
In power since 1991, Nursultan Nazarbayev, of the Democratic Popular Party, is seeking another term in a contest against Communist Party candidate Turgun Syzdykov, who has held regional positions but is unknown nationally, and labor leader Abelgazy Kussainov, a political independent.
Nazarbayev, 74, is from the southeastern region of Almaty and worked as a metallurgist in Karaganda, in the center of the country.
In 1970, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, going on to become prime minister of the-then Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1984.
Following independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Nazarbayev was elected as the first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan, winning re-election in 1995, 1999, 2005 and 2011, each time with at least 79 percent of the vote.
Turgun Syzdykov, 66, is secretary of the Communist Party, one of the three parties represented in the Kazakh parliament.
Born in the northern region of Akmola, Syzdykov graduated as an agricultural technician from the local agricultural school before receiving a degree in agriculture from Astana University.
Syzdykov also has a degree in history from Moscow's Communist Youth School.
He entered politics after a career in agriculture and teaching and has held numerous regional positions in the Communist Party, but was unknown nationally until the party presented him as their candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.
Though he has no political party behind him, Abelgazy Kussainov, 63, is a national figure.
Kussainov was born in the central Kazakhstan and graduated from the Karaganda Technical University and the Russian Management Academy.
He started work as a miner and later went on to teach at a technical school in his native region.
From 1980 to 1991 he worked in local sections of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Since independence, he has occupied various government positions in Karaganda.
Kussainov was elected to the Kazakh Senate in 1995 and was named the country's deputy economy minister in 1999.
From 2005 to 2011, he was deputy prime minister and minister of transport and communications, before serving as governor of Karaganda in 2012-2013.
In January 2013, he was elected chairman of the Kazakhstan Federation of Trade Unions.
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