The zeroing out operation has completed: Shavkat Mirziyoyev will remain in power for at least another 7 years (after 20 years of ruling Uzbekistan)

Incumbent president Shavkat Mirziyoyev won Sunday’s presidential election with 87.05% of the vote. The preliminary results of the election (the final ones will not differ much) were announced at a briefing on Monday by the chairman of the Central Election Commission, Zayniddin Nizomxo’jayev.

According to Nizomxo’jayev, 13 million 625 thousand 55 people voted for Mirziyoyev.

15 million 651 thousand 405 voters took part in the elections, or 79.88% of the total number of 19 million 593 thousand 838 voters.

Mirziyoyev’s candidacy was nominated by the UzLiDeP party and supported by the Milliy Tiklanish party.

As we predicted, the rest of the candidates, little known to the general public, received a few percent each. None of the opposition candidates participated in the election.

Robaxon Maxmudova, nominated by the Social Democratic Party «Adolat» («Justice»), received 4.43% of the vote — 693 thousand 634 people voted for her.

The candidate from the People’s Democratic Party and its leader Ulugbek Inoyatov won 4.02% of the vote — 629 thousand 116 people.

The candidate from the Ecological Party of Uzbekistan Abdushukur Xamzaev won 3.74% of the votes — 585 thousand 711 people.

The number of spoiled ballots was 0.78%.

“The election was held on the basis of international norms and standards and national electoral legislation, in full compliance with such democratic principles as openness, transparency, freedom and fairness, and in high spirits,” said the head of the CEC.

Nizomxo’jayev also announced Shavkat Mirziyoyev as the elected president at the briefing. This was followed by prolonged applause.

Recall that Mirziyoyev has been in power for 20 years — 13 years as prime minister under President Islam Karimov and another seven years, after the death of Karimov (who ruled Uzbekistan as a whole for 27 years, until his death in 2016 at the age of 78), as president.

The operation of «zeroing out» began in 2021, when Mirziyoyev came out with the initiative to amend the Constitution of Uzbekistan. The new constitution, adopted this spring, allows Mirziyoyev to reset the previous terms of the presidency, and also increases the term of the presidency from 5 to 7 years. If the Constitution had not been changed, this term of Mirziyoyev would have been the last, and so he will be able to stay in power until about 2038, when he will be 79-80 years old.

Some wonder why Mirziyoyev decided to hold the election now, given that he still had three and a half years left before the end of his second presidential term. Of course, I can’t get into his head, but the situation in the world, in the former USSR and in Uzbekistan itself suggests that life in the republic will become even worse over these three and a half years (it is still very difficult) and it is not known how the people would behave in three and a half years, having heard the official figures.

I did not vote. My friends didn’t either. Although at least three guys brought a vote urn to our house. And to whom else did they bring the ballot box? Share in the comments.