Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov is shown in Moscow on April 15, 2013.GRIGORY DUKOR/Reuters
Incumbent leader Islam Karimov has won a Sunday's presidential election in Uzbekistan in a landslide, as expected, according to preliminary results released Monday.
The Central Election Commission said in a statement published on its website that Karimov had garnered a 90.4 per cent of the vote as nearly 91 per cent of the vote were counted by late afternoon.
Even before all of the ballots were counted, Russian President Vladimir Putin's office sent congratulations to the 77-year-old Karimov, who has led the former Soviet republic since 1990 and ruthlessly quashed all opposition to his rule.
Uzbekistan relies heavily on Russia, where three million Uzbeks live and work – escaping unemployment and extreme poverty of their home country.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in a statement issued on Monday criticized the vote as a foregone conclusion for lacking "genuine political alternatives." The OSCE also noted that Karimov was allowed to run despite the constitutional limit of two consecutive presidential terms.
While Uzbekistan is untroubled by any immediate signs of unrest, the future of the country of 30 million people is colored with uncertainty because of a troubled security situation in neighbouring Afghanistan and the lack of a clear succession plan.
Almost all Western media have been barred from reporting inside the country since a violent government crackdown on rioters in the Ferghana Valley city of Andijan in 2005 that is believed to have left hundreds dead.