Presidential elections were held in

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

on 29 March 2015. The result was a victory for incumbent President

Islam Karimov Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov ( uz, Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov / Ислом Абдуғаниевич Каримов, italics=no; russian: link=no, Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов; 30 January 1938 – 2 September 2016) was t ...

, who received over 90% of the vote. Karimov's win gave him a fourth consecutive term as president, dating back to 1990.

Background

A constitutional law on presidential elections was approved by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on 23 March 2012,Karimov surreptitiously shortens presidential term of office
Uznews, 29 March 2012 which required presidential elections to be held 90 days after parliamentary elections. Elections to the Legislative Chamber were held over two-rounds, the first on 23 December 2014 and the second on 4 January 2015. The law change effectively shortened the term of incumbent President

by several months, as under the previous law, the elections would have been held on 27 December 2015. Though the constitution limits presidents to two terms in office, the Central Election Commission allowed Karimov to run again, arguing that Karimov had only served one term since the constitution was adopted in 2002, and that his previous two terms before that should not count.

Candidates

The candidates were: *

of the Liberal Democratic Party, president since 1990Karimov Nominated For Reelection In Uzbekistan
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 15 January 2015 *Khatamjan Ketmanov of the

People's Democratic Party People's Democratic Party or ''variant thereof'', could refer to: * People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan *People's Democratic Party (Belize) *People's Democratic Party (Bhutan) *People's Democratic Party (Chile) * People's Democratic Party (Dom ...

*Nariman Umarov of the

Justice Social Democratic Party The Justice Social Democratic Party ( uz, Adolat Sotsial Demokratik Partiyasi; ASDP) is a political party in Uzbekistan. One of the founders and the first general secretary of the party was Anvar Juraboev. It is one of the four parties who acts ...

Elections 2015
Uzbekistan Embassy to the United Kingdom *Akmal Saidov of the National Revival Democratic Party All candidates were loyal to Karimov.

Conduct

The

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

stated that the Uzbek poll lacked genuine opposition. Steve Swerdlow at

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

called the vote a "sham election". Observers from the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

and

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian politics, political, economy, economic and security organization. It is the world's largest regional organization in terms of geography, geographic scope and world population, population, c ...

called the election "open, free, and democratic," and said it had proceeded "openly and democratically," respectively.

Results

References

Presidential elections in Uzbekistan 2015 in Uzbekistan {{Asia-election-stub