* Nazarbayev "a strong leader of a successful nation"
* "Leader of the Nation" can shape policy after retirement
* Without a son, he has no clear successor
By Dmitry Solovyov
ALMATY, April 3 (Reuters) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, certain of re-election to rule Central Asia's largest economy for five more years, seems set on guiding the the nation even after his long reign finally ends.
The 70-year-old former steelworker, popularly nicknamed "Papa", has held an iron grip on power for two decades since Soviet days, paying little heed to home-grown opposition and pressure from the West for democratic reforms.
A member of the last Soviet Communist Party Politburo, Nazarbayev appeared set to win an early election on Sunday by a landslide in the predominantly Muslim oil-producing nation.
Nazarbayev looks down from giant posters presenting him as "a strong leader of a successful nation". In January he said that he plans to rule as long as his health and people allow.
But his supporters at least appear determined that Nazarbayev should bring his influence to bear on Kazakhstan even after he finally leaves office, whenever that may be.
For Nazarbayev is not only president. On June 15, 2010 he also became "Leader of the Nation" after parliament granted him immunity from prosecution and the right to shape policy after retirement.
Diplomats and analysts say the new law -- ratified despite Nazarbayev's public rejection of the need for such powers -- is a signal that any successor will still be answerable to him.
Some analysts say it could also allow him to groom a pliant successor, the absence of which is widely seen as the biggest political risk faced by foreign investors.
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MAN OF STEEL
Without a son to succeed him, Nazarbayev -- publicly at least -- is keeping the political and business elite guessing.
Quick-witted and in a good physical shape, Nazarbayev gives no clue as to when he could possibly retire. His close circle says he could rule at least until 2020.
"I work round the clock ... sometimes, especially on foreign visits, I sleep just two or three hours a day. But I do not complain. All the same, I find time to play tennis twice a week," he said in a recent interview with local media.
"I never fail to do my physical exercise for 30 or 40 minutes every morning -- I just can't live without it."
Nazarbayev, who portrays himself as a man of steel, has overseen market reforms, attracting ${esc.dollar}122 billion in direct foreign investment and opening up his vast steppe nation.
He learned his trade half a century ago in the blast furnaces of Kazakhstan's flagship steel mill, where he worked for nearly a decade. He calls Temirtau, the city sprawled alongside its smokestacks, his "working motherland".
"Ours was a generation of steely character, unbreakable will and purpose," he said last summer during a visit to Temirtau. "These qualities have allowed us to overcome even the most difficult of tasks and to conquer any peak."
Popular with many people in his nation of 16.4 million, he appeals to voters with down-to-earth promises of stability and welfare in the volatile central Asian region which borders Afghanistan and is rocked by radical Islam, regional clans, ethnic tension and the drugs trade.
"I have never built castles in the air," he said in his election platform. "My task is to make every Kazakhstani feel the state always cares about him. Only the one that is confident of his abilities, of his nation, can be a true patriot."
DEFT MANOEUVRING
Kazakhstan, five times the size of France, is the biggest market for foreign investors in Central Asia and central to a geopolitical tug-of-war between Russia, China and the West.
Nazarbayev has weathered Western criticism of rolling back democratic changes in 2010 when Kazakhstan became the first ex-Soviet nation to hold the rotating chair of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Turning a deaf ear to his critics, he hosted with pomp an OSCE summit in December in the new capital Astana, using the opportunity to showcase the city -- his modernistic brainchild rising fast from a windswept steppe.
Nazarbayev says foreign capital was needed to rescue ailing industry in the post-Soviet period. Many credit him for economic growth averaging nearly 8 percent annually over the last decade, avoiding the social tensions that afflict poorer neighbours.
Nazarbayev's more recent courting of Beijing has also proven shrewd. China was the main contributor to a record year for foreign investment in 2008, the height of the financial crisis.
Nazarbayev was born on July 6, 1940, near the former capital Almaty. His museum in a school where he studied has a painting of his grandmother seeing a dream with little Nursultan riding a white horse in heaven among white clouds. Villagers believe this shows Nazarbayev was handpicked by Allah to rule.
Other hobbies include playing golf and trekking. He uses an iPod and "other gadgets" to watch films, read and study English.
"I pay attention to my family," he said. "We sometimes meet on Sunday and have lunch together ... sing and, of course, eat our beloved beshbarmak," he said of the Kazakh nomad dish of horse, mutton and thick broth served with boiled wheat flakes. (Additional reporting by Robin Paxton in Astana; editing by David Stamp)
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