Uzbekistan

Uzbek leader wins referendum on extending powers

cde.news desk 1 May 2023, 10:40 · 1 min read

epa10187422 Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attends the meeting in narrow format of the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State Council (SCO-HSC) Summit, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, 16 September 2022. The SCO is an international alliance founded in 2001 in Shanghai and composed of China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and four Observer States interested in acceding to full membership - Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia. EPA-EFE/SERGEI BOBYLEV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL MANDATORY CREDIT

TASHKENT, May 1 (Reuters) – Uzbekistan has passed a package of constitutional amendments in a referendum, preliminary data showed on Monday, which will allow President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to run for two more seven-year terms when his current one ends in 2026.

The reform, passed with 90.21% of Sunday’s vote, resets Mirziyoyev’s term count, while promising the Central Asian nation’s citizens greater social and legal protections.

Mirziyoyev, 65, has opened up the former Soviet republic’s economy, greatly improved ties with the West, and curbed the powers of security services whose dominance had in previous decades turned the country of 35 million into a police state.

Although Tashkent’s Western partners are unlikely to approve of the extension of presidential powers, Uzbekistan risks little given the West is seeking support from ex-Soviet nations in its efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Photo: President Shavkat Mirziyoyev

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Uzbek leader wins referendum on extending powers

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