Uzbeks vote on reforms to strengthen president

TASHKENT: Voters across Central Asian Uzbekistan went to the polls on Sunday in a constitutional referendum that could allow President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to remain in power until 2040.

Mirziyoyev, 65, became president in 2016 after the death of dictator Islam Karimov. He insists the overhaul of the constitution will improve governance and quality of life in the landlocked country of 35 million people, whose rights have long been heavily restricted.

But it is Mirziyoyev who is expected to benefit most in the majority-Muslim country, observers say. The constitutional changes would extend presidential terms from five to seven years, allowing him to serve two more terms and extend his time in power until 2040.

The authoritarian reformer voted in the capital Tashkent with his family. Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0300 GMT), according to the Uzbek Election Commission. They were supposed to be closed at 8:00 pm.

There is little doubt the amendments will be adopted, in a country where the media is heavily controlled. The government has gone to some lengths to give the vote a veneer of legitimacy, enrolling local celebrities at large rallies and concerts to praise the proposals and the president.

Billboards around Tashkent, the biggest city in Central Asia, encourage people to vote. The campaign appears to be working. “The new constitution will change my life,” Shamsiddin Zhurayev, a 40-year-old businessman, told AFP outside a Tashkent polling station.

“But I don´t really know in what way.” Yet the prospect of Mirziyoyev clinging on to power unnerved some. “Everything is done so that the president remains in power for life,” said 70-year-old pensioner Nurkhamil, who refused to give his last name.