The ruling party of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was declared the landslide winner Monday of snap polls in which two nominally-opposition groups won parliament seats for the first time.

Sunday's vote had been called early to breathe new life into a system under which the 71-year-old leader put economic prosperity before political freedoms and ensured that his Nur Otan party dominated most aspects of daily life.

But the polls were largely overshadow by December clashes between striking oil workers and security forces that killed 16 people in the Central Asian state's worst bloodshed since the Soviet Union's fall.

The outcome nevertheless had never been in serious doubt and early results had Nazarbayev's party winning 80.74 percent of the vote.

Nur Otan will be joined in parliament by the pro-business Ak Zhol (Bright Path) party which garnered 7.46 percent of the vote and the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan -- a largely pro-government group that won 7.2 percent.

None of the other four parties contesting the poll in the resource-rich nation broke through the seven-percent threshold and will remain shut out of parliament.

The only vehemently anti-government group -- the All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) -- won just 1.59 percent of the vote.

"This is our shared victory," Nazarbayev told his supporters moments after the results were announced. "This means that the people of Kazakhstan will continue supporting our course of stability and unity."

The anti-government opposition has already alleged that the elections were marred by flagrant violations. But Nazarbayev said on Sunday that the polls were "unprecedented in their transparency, openness and honesty".

Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were due to release their election report at 0900 GMT.

Western monitors have never before recognised a Kazakh ballot as free or fair -- an issue that has irritated Nazarbayev's advisers as they position the region's largest economy toward future growth.

The Caspian Sea region riots in Zhanaozen initially saw the veteran leader adopt a tough line in which he blamed the violence on criminals with links to foreign sponsors.

The violence sent a chill through the growing foreign investment community that Nazarbayev had relied on to develop industry and record a decade of 10-percent annual growth.

And Nazarbayev soon regained his reputed skills for political manoeuvring by sacking top energy executives as well as his own son-in-law and one-time possible successor Timur Kulibayev as head of the mammoth state holding firm.

He also ordered elections to be held in Zhanaozen in response to concerns that voters were being frozen out of the polls as punishment for protesting against the authorities.

Nazarbayev announced Monday that more than 70 percent of Zhanaozen's voters had cast ballots for Nur Otan in a sign of support for his rule.

"Perhaps someone wanted to use this to play politics," Nazarbayev said of the riots.

"But the people took notice and understood that they treasured calm and stability in our country," he told his supporters.