Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s incumbent president has been elected the country’s president for the next five years.

He gathered the votes of over 17.1 million voters, or 90.39 percent of the total number of voters, Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov, the Uzbek Central Election Commission’s chairman said at a briefing on March 30.

The voter lists included the names of a total of 20,798,052 citizens. Some 18,928,000 people, or 91.01 percent of the voters, took part in Uzbekistan’s presidential election, held on March 29.

The international observers from more than 40 countries and international organizations said the elections were held at a high level.

Sergei Lebedev, the head of an observer mission from the Commonwealth of Independent States said the presidential election in Uzbekistan was held openly and in line with international standards.

Lebedev, who is also the chairman of the CIS executive committee and the CIS executive secretary, said at a press conference on March 30 that the election was held in a calm atmosphere, in line with the electoral law norms of Uzbekistan and with a high voter turnout.

He also underscored the high level of organization of the presidential election, adding that the transparency of both voting and counting of the votes were ensured at the polling stations.

OSCE observation mission also highly appreciated the elections in Uzbekistan. Tana de Zulueta, the head of the observation mission from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said the presidential election was held at a sufficiently high level and that the voters were active.

The candidates from four political parties were running for the presidency. Uzbekistan’s current president possessed an advantage during the election campaign, according to the mission head.

OSCE/ODIHR mission will release a detailed report about the election campaign in Uzbekistan in about two months.

Some 72 observers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the CIS executive committee were accredited as part of this mission.

About 300 observers from five international organizations – the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, World Association of electoral bodies and Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, as well as 43 states – participated in the elections.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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