Uzbek leader scores landslide election win

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: Uzbekistan´s interim leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev has won a crushing presidential election victory to succeed the late strongman Islam Karimov,official results showed on Monday.

The Central Election Commission said Mirziyoyev scooped 88.6 percent of the Sunday vote, according to a preliminary count, while Western monitors reported signs of fraud.

Mirziyoyev´s massive margin over rivals for the five-year term echoed the past successes of predecessor Karimov, who died of a stroke in September after 27 years at the helm of the commodity-rich country.

A mission led by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said there were "indications of ballot box stuffing and widespread proxy voting" during the vote.

"The dominant position of state actors and limits on fundamental freedoms undermined political pluralism and led to a campaign devoid of genuine competition," mission head Peter Tejler said at a press conference broadcast online from the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "warmly congratulated" Mirziyoyev on his victory in a phone conversation, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Mirziyoyev, a Karimov loyalist who was named as his prime minister in 2003, seemed to face little actual competition in the vote.