Uzbekistan set to re-elect Karimov in presidential vote
Moscow (AsiaNews) - There is little doubt that Islam Karimov, who has led Uzbekistan since 1989 (when he was appointed head of the local Communist Party in the USSR), will be re-elected as president in the elections of 29 March. The popular vote with the participation of three other candidates does not represent a real challenge to a man the Uzbeks call 'podishoh', the king.
The elections in the Central Asian country considered among the most repressive in the world, and where NGOs have described human rights conditions as "terrible", are being held against a backdrop of speculation about a possible successor to Karimov, now 77, and whose long absence from public events, last month, rekindled rumors about his health problems.
The election was called following the parliamentary elections of 21 December 2014, which an OSCE monitoring mission described as having taken place in a regular fashion, with competent management by the Central Election Commission and a greater transparency than in the past, even if there was no real competition between political parties, given that all more or less agree on the fundamental issues of domestic and foreign policy.
"They are running just to create a sense of democracy," Abdurakhmon Tashanov, a Tashkent-based activist from Ezgulik human rights organization, told the BBC. Karimov, says there are few signs of real criticism of the outgoing Head of State: the respective election campaigns are all based on the concept of "continuing the development of the country" and " maintaining the current pace of economic growth. "
Situated along the Silk Road, Uzbekistan - the most populous Central Asian nation and the one with the largest army - is one of the world's largest cotton producers, while its natural resources in gas, oil and gold exert a strong foreign attraction. Its independence dates back to 1991, after more than a century under Russian rule, first the Tzarist Empire and then the Soviet Union.
Uzbekistan is slowly progressing in the necessary economic reforms but is still struggling with poverty and widespread unemployment. Voters sentiment towards politics is one of indifference, with many who will vote Karimov because "no one can do better than him," as a woman in the eastern province of Jizzakh states. "We're used to him, I cannot imagine anyone else in his place," she adds.
While there are many names in the race to succeed him (but no longer his eldest daughter Gulnara, recently fallen out of favor and caught up in a corruption investigation), according to Lawrence Markowitz - an expert from Rowan University - the Uzbek political elite plan to keep Karimov in power for as long as possible: He is the guarantor of a system that converts the state resources into private wealth; the central government provides them with protection in the field of political support.
"system, and corruption it fosters, is so pervasive in public offices in Uzbekistan that it now severely constrains any transfer of power since a disruption of this flow of wealth brings repercussions for many political elites," says Markowitz. According to him, "The highly corrupt and highly unequal system that privileges elites and marginalises everyone else politically and economically is not sustainable in the long term. If it is not reformed, I believe it will eventually lead to instability" .
The ISPI institute, however, points out that the country is still in a phase of post-independence: "The bottom-line priorities can only refer to the consolidation of the state, to the stabilization of the productive forces, the creation of a sense of collective belonging which is more necessary than ever after the end of the Soviet Union. A process of this type can only be gradual. "
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