Western monitors on Monday slammed the lack of choice in Kazakhstan's presidential election, which was won by incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev with 97.7 percent of the vote.

"Voters were not offered a genuine choice between political alternatives," said Cornelia Jonker, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission at a briefing in the capital Astana, noting "significant restrictions to the freedom of expression, as well as to the media environment."

Turnout in the election was a record 95.22 percent.