Gazis Aldamzharov, head of the Communist Party, questioned whether, among 16.4m Kazakhstanis, it was really impossible to find a worthy alternative to Mr Nazarbayev.
Mr Nazarbayev is popular among his countrymen but the near-perfect result is an embarrassment for the foreign governments that applauded him for calling the election.
Nazarbayev permitted a relatively high degree of political activity until the emergence of a reform movement called Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, backed by several wealthy business people, in late 2001.
Nursultan Nazarbayev has led Kazakhstan as president, since independence in 1991, extending his tenure through a series of constitutional revisions and elections in which he has faced only token opposition.
Related: Kazakhstan election avoids question of Nazarbayev successor In the blue corner is Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan for ever (literally: the country has never had another elected leader since it was formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union).
There are two unknowns but they have little chance given that Nazarbayev won 96% of the vote last time, in 2011.
A summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, scheduled to start this Thursday, with the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was cancelled at the last minute.
The turmoil erupted just as Mr Nazarbayev was opening his latest architectural indulgence in Astana, an arch marking Kazakhstan's 20th year of independence.
The state propaganda machine still ensures a large measure of public acclaim for Mr Nazarbayev, however forced.
Now the devaluation has reminded many ordinary people maxed out on credit and exasperated by the growing rich-poor divide that they are not living the "Kazakh dream .Mr Nazarbayev likes to play the elder statesman, taking credit for Kazakhstan's achievements from sustained, albeit oil-fuelled, economic growth (6% last year) to apparent social cohesion in a state fashioned from many ethnic groups.
The number of tourists who visit Mongolia each year is also only a fraction of the foreigners who travel to Kazakhstan.Mr Nazarbayev called for a public discussion of his proposal, which obediently ensued in newspapers, on television and on social-media networks.
