The election control in the capital Tashkent declared the vote in the authoritarian-led ex-Soviet republic to be valid around noon on Sunday. At 12 noon local time (9 a.m. CEST), the minimum voter turnout of 33 percent had been reached, it said.
Observers expect a huge victory for the 64-year-old incumbent Mirsiyoyev. After the death of dictator Islam Karimov in 2016, he opened the country bordering Afghanistan significantly to the outside world.
More than 21 million people were called to vote. In the capital Tashkent, where people cast their votes in the sunshine, many voters said that among the five candidates, only the incumbent could be considered as a politician with authority. «I don’t even know the other candidates. Only one person can lead the country, “said a 73-year-old voter. She said that she could barely live on her 170 euros pension, but that her son, who earns well in Moscow, is helping her.
The capital Tashkent has experienced an unprecedented building boom since Karimov’s death. Many Western investors have also come; Formerly state-run businesses have been privatized. «Corruption is a serious problem with the growth of the economy. But everyone sees that things are progressing, ”said the political scientist Rawschan Nazarow of the German Press Agency in Tashkent.
After Karimov’s death, Mirsiyoyev made the country socially acceptable again – and also significantly intensified the dialogue with the West. Nasarov expects the head of state to achieve a huge victory and to continue his reform course, which was recently slowed down by the corona pandemic, in the country with more than 30 million people in the next five years.
The polling stations should close at 8:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST). A preliminary final result is expected on Monday. Mirsiyoyev received 88.6 percent of the vote five years ago.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) criticized, among other things, the exclusion of the opposition from the vote and violations of human rights. The OSCE will give its verdict on Monday’s vote. For Germany, Uzbekistan, which is rich in natural resources, is the second most important trading partner in Central Asia after Kazakhstan.