2023-07-09 06:42:08
A man walks past a campaign billboard of Uzbekistan’s incumbent president and presidential candidate Shavkat Mirzyev in Krasnogorsk, about 60 km from Tashkent, on July 8, 2023. VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO / AFP
Some twenty million Uzbeks are called on Sunday, July 9, to elect their president in an early ballot after which the outgoing leader, Chavkat Mirzioev, should easily be reappointed for the third time at the head of the most populated in Central Asia.
The approximately 10,000 polling stations, which must close at 8 p.m. local time (5 p.m. Paris time), opened at 8 a.m., after the Uzbek anthem sounded, noted journalists from Agence France- Press (AFP) in Tashkent, the capital.
This presidential election was called by Mr. Mirzioev in the wake of the constitutional referendum, adopted by more than 90% of voters in this gas-rich country in a strategic position as it borders all the other states in the region, including Afghanistan.
Having to consecrate the project of a fairer “New Uzbekistan”, the president’s mantra displayed everywhere throughout this former Soviet republic, the April 30 ballot also validated the passage from the five-year term to the seven-year term and authorizes Chavkat Mirzioev to stand for two additional terms. . Measures that allow the 65-year-old leader to theoretically remain in power until 2037 in Uzbekistan, after large victories in elections criticized by international observers for their lack of real competition.
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Strong population growth
A positive outcome of the vote leaves little doubt for the outgoing leader, who faces three candidates almost unknown to the general public.
“These are my first elections, I will vote for Shavkat Mirzioev, because I want there to be more opportunities for young people and places to study”, hopes Milana Iouldacheva, 18, met by AFP in Krasnogorsk, about fifty kilometers from the capital Tashkent. A request that echoes one of the promises of the outgoing president, who claims to want to open “500,000 new places each year to study”.
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As for Rousibou Guibadoullina, street vendor, she would like “ask the candidate president Mirzioev that the younger generation can rest in summer holiday camps, as under the Soviet Union”in this former mining town where a mural from the 1950s to the glory of the USSR is visible on a building in the main square.
Because in this predominantly young country with strong population growth, economic difficulties persist despite progress, with many Uzbeks having to travel to Russia to feed their families.
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A 64-year-old roofer and resident of Krasnogorsk, a former mining town, Abdouali Nourmatov expects the president to settle the “gas and electricity problems”after last winter marked by repeated cuts, Chavkat Mirzioev claiming to want to put an end to it.
International openness policy
Internationally, Mr. Mirzioev’s stated objective is to pursue his policy of openness in order to attract foreign investment, breaking with the quarter century of isolation of Uzbekistan under Islam Karimov, of which he was the Prime Minister. But internally, the political landscape has changed little, with only five authorized parties, all supporting presidential policy to a greater or lesser extent.
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And this election is no exception, with a huge favorite although the programs and posters, in Uzbek and Russian, are distributed fairly among the candidates. A formula already tested during the elections in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and singled out by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) qualifying the campaign as “discreet, reflecting the absence of opposition to the outgoing president”.
And NGOs have criticized the repression of rare demonstrations against a constitutional amendment in July 2022 in the north of the country, having left twenty-one dead, according to the official report.
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