Tashkent—Voting was underway in Uzbekistan’s presidential election Sunday, with incumbent Shavkat Mirziyoyev facing no real opposition but plenty of challenges as he bids to reform the ex-Soviet country while maintaining its authoritarian foundations.
Mirziyoyev has been credited for launching what he calls a “New Uzbekistan”, ending a decades-old system of forced labour and introducing limited media freedom.
He came to power in 2016 after the death of his mentor, dictator Islam Karimov, who ruled the Central Asian country for 27 years.
Mirziyoyev has presided over an unprecedented boom in foreign tourism in the country that borders Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and counts China and Russia among its partners.
But as his first term ends, the 64-year-old is struggling to counter impressions that his government is sliding back towards the habits of his long-reigning predecessor.
The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have also blunted his initial economic achievements, with unemployment rife amid sharp rises in living costs.
Zera, a 55-year-old woman who was part of a slow trickle of mostly middle-aged and elderly voters casting their ballots at a high school in the capital Tashkent on Sunday, said she backed Mirziyoyev, but was worried about the situation over the border in Afghanistan.
“This country worries me a lot now that (the Taliban) has taken over,” she told AFP, only giving her first name. “The whole world warred with them and nothing good came of it. Can we be their friends? I am not sure.”
A 45-year-old man who also only gave his first name, Georgy, said he had voted “against everyone, including him” — a reference to Mirziyoyev.
“I don’t like any of these choices,” he said.
Mirziyoyev cast his own vote at a polling station on Tashkent’s outskirts where he appeared alongside wife Ziroatkhon Hoshimova and their three children.
The strongman smiled as he posed for photographs before dropping his vote in the ballot box but did not address the press.
Voting across the landlocked country of 34 million people began at 8:00 am local time (0300 GMT) and will last until 8:00 pm (1500 GMT).
More freedoms, but no choice
Prolonged isolation under Karimov meant that commodity-rich Uzbekistan fell well short of its economic potential for most of independence.
It is against the founding president’s brutal rule that the successes of Mirziyoyev’s reforms have been judged.
His public disavowal of torture and campaign to clean up mass forced labour in cotton fields — where thousands of schoolchildren once toiled alongside their teachers — gained international praise.
But the last two years have seen a crackdown on dissent, rights groups said, particularly in internet freedoms that bloomed after 2016.
Mirziyoyev has also sidestepped reforms that would allow competition to his rule.
He faces four regime-loyal opponents plucked from parties in the rubber-stamp parliament in his bid to secure a second five-year term.
A would-be independent challenger, academic Khidirnazar Allakulov, fell at the first hurdle after failing to register a party that could nominate him.
Human Rights Watch said this month that officials “harassed (Allakulov’s) party supporters and interfered in their efforts to collect signatures for registration”.
‘A lot of poor and homeless’
Still, many Uzbeks interviewed by AFP in Tashkent ahead of the vote said they were unconcerned by the lack of real choice on the ballot.
“When things are going well, why do we need so many choices?” asked pensioner Yakub Otazhanov.
“Let Mirziyoyev (get on with it).”
Under his rule, Uzbekistan has strengthened traditional relations with regional powerhouses Beijing and Moscow, while welcoming back international organisations and media outlets effectively banned under Karimov.
But for many in Tashkent, poverty rather than rights is the issue of the day.
“There are a lot of poor and homeless people. We need to find housing for people,” said a 26-year-old money-changer at the city’s Chorsu market.
The man, who gave his first name, Sardor, said he would vote for Mirziyoyev.
“I hope he will help solve these problems.”
His colleague, who did not want to be named, implied that the president’s reforms were cosmetic.
“New buildings do not mean a new Uzbekistan,” he said.
