Shavkat Mirziyaev elected as Uzbekistan’s president

By Azernews

By Gunay Hasanova

Shavkat Mirziyaev has been elected as Uzbekistan’s president for the next five years.

Chairman of Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov has today announced that acting president Shavkat Mirziyaev won the December 4 presidential election with more than 88 percent of the votes.

The official turnout was 87.83 percent, with more than 17.9 million out of some 20 million eligible voters taking part.

The elections were monitored by the representatives of international organizations.

The presidential election in Uzbekistan was open and democratic and corresponded to the international standards, said Rashid Alimov, head of the observer mission from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Sergey Lebedev, executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and head of the CIS observer mission at the election, also said that the Uzbek presidential election was held at a high organizational level, in an open and democratic manner.

Mirziyaev has been named as the country’s acting president following the death of Islam Karimov, the longtime leader of the former Soviet republic.

In addition to Mirziyaev, there were three other candidates running for the presidency: Khatamjon Ketmanov from the People’s Democratic Party, Sarvar Otamuratov from the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party, and Nariman Umarov from the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party.

Earlier, Mirziyaev has said that he intends to largely follow the political course of Karimov.

Mirziyaev was quick to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Karimov's death and last month hosted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.