Uzbekistan's incumbent leader wins 2nd term in office
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) — Uzbekistan's incumbent leader has won a second five-year term in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation, preliminary results showed Monday.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev received 80.1% of Sunday's vote, the country's Central Election Commission announced.
Mirziyoyev, who took office in 2016 following the death of longtime President Islam Karimov, has relaxed many of the policies of his dictatorial predecessor but maintained rigid controls over the political scene.
In Sunday's election, he faced four relatively low-visibility candidates who didn’t even show up for televised debates, instead sending proxies who failed to engage in substantial discussions. Independent candidates weren’t allowed, and if it had not been for the billboards presenting the candidates and text messages sent by the government reminding voters about the forthcoming election, the campaign would have been hard to spot.
Jahongir Otajonov, a popular singer and representative of the unregistered Erk party, whose leaders are in exile, quit the race under intense pressure. Khidirnazar Allakulov, the leader of the Hakikat va Tarakkiyot party, also wasn’t allowed to run.
Despite the absence of significant competition, voter turnout was strong at 80.8%.
Under Mirziyoyev, freedom of speech has expanded compared with the suppression of the Karimov era, and some independent news media and bloggers have appeared. He also relaxed the tight controls on Islam in the predominantly Muslim country that Karimov imposed to counter dissident views.
Mirziyoyev lifted controls on hard currency, helping encourage foreign investment, and he moved to patch up foreign relations that had soured under Karimov.
“Mirziyoyev improved relations with world players such as Russia, China and the...