The commission had formally approved the final result of Sunday's poll following the earlier publication of preliminary results that already gave Nazarbayev a resounding win, the state news agency Kazinform said.

Nazarbayev's nearest rival, Zharmakhan Tuyakbai of the opposition For a Just Kazakhstan coalition, won just 6.48 percent of all votes, the final results showed.

The election was slammed on Monday by observers from the Western-led Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which said the election did not meet international standards.

Under the constitution Nazarbayev wins a seven-year term in office.

Aged 65, he has ruled the Central Asian country since Soviet times, turning it into a burgeoning oil power.

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