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Individuals in Uzbekistan are voting on a constitutional referendum that would enable President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to increase his rule by 14 years.
If Sunday’s referendum passes, presidential phrases could be lengthened from 5 to seven years. The change would enable the 65-year-old Mirziyoyev to serve two extra phrases and prolong his time in energy till 2040.
Authorities in essentially the most populous former Soviet republic in Central Asia mentioned an overhaul of the structure would enhance governance and high quality of life within the majority-Muslim nation of 35 million individuals. The federal government additionally mentioned the referendum would usher in human rights reforms.
Polling stations opened at 8am (03:00 GMT), based on the Uzbek Election Fee. They’ll shut at 8pm (15:00 GMT).
Main as much as the vote, media was closely managed in a rustic the place rights have lengthy been closely restricted. Two journalists working for Uzbek state media informed the Agence France-Presse (AFP) information company on the situation of anonymity that they’d been “ordered to cowl Uzbekistan, the referendum and the president in a optimistic manner”.
Each mentioned censorship had grown in the course of the referendum marketing campaign.
The federal government has gone to some lengths to present the vote a veneer of legitimacy, enrolling native celebrities at giant rallies and concert events to reward each the proposals and the president.
Billboards across the capital, Tashkent, the most important metropolis in Central Asia, carry imaginary message chats between voters.
“Dad, lets go to the park?” reads the primary message. “No, now we have to vote first,” comes the reply.
Agay Danilov, an 18-year-old pupil, informed AFP the referendum was “a good suggestion”.
“We are able to select the way forward for our nation,” Danilov mentioned.
‘A brand new Uzbekistan’?
Since coming to energy in 2016 within the wake of the demise of his hardline predecessor Islam Karimov, Mirziyoyev has spearheaded a collection of reforms in Uzbekistan, together with a clampdown on pressured labour within the cotton fields.
However activists mentioned rights abuses persist and authorities have proven no signal of permitting a political opposition to emerge.
In 2022, at the very least 21 individuals had been killed throughout demonstrations within the autonomous area of Karakalpakstan. Rights activists accused the authorities of utilizing deadly drive in opposition to the protesters.
Olivier Ferrando, a researcher on the Catholic College of Lyon in France, mentioned the referendum was a “flagship measure” for Mirziyoyev in his try at “emancipation” from the legacy of his predecessor.
Karimov died in 2016 after a quarter-century of brutal rule. Mirziyoyev was his loyal prime minister for 13 years however now presents himself as a way more progressive determine.
“Many analysts see, understandably, an effort by Mirziyoyev to remain in energy, however it might be a disgrace to dismiss this textual content as simply an authoritarian flip,” Ferrando informed AFP, referring to the amendments.
Among the many proposals are a ban on capital punishment and the safety of human rights for what Mirziyoyev calls a “new Uzbekistan”.
“We must see, after all, if this constitutional reform, considered one of whose goals is to present ensures to the worldwide neighborhood of democratic growth within the new Uzbekistan, will have the ability to transcend a easy beauty impact and be totally carried out in individuals’s each day lives,” Ferrando mentioned.
Uzbekistan’s inhabitants is rising from a very harsh winter marked by gasoline shortages and is confronted with enduring poverty and endemic corruption.
Regardless of some financial progress and social enhancements, such because the criminalisation of home violence, the federal government brooks no dissent.
Throughout July’s unrest, demonstrations in opposition to a constitutional modification in Karakalpakstan, which might have lowered the autonomy of the huge territory, had been put down in a bloody crackdown. Dozens of individuals had been jailed.
The modification has since been withdrawn.
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