Leader reelected, early returns show
Uzbekistan’s authoritarian President Islam Karimov, who has ruled the Central Asian nation for nearly two decades, won another seven-year term with 88.1% of the vote, according to early returns in an election that critics called a sham.
Karimov faced three other contenders in the vote Sunday, but all publicly supported him. The election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the vote failed to meet democratic standards.
Most of Karimov’s opponents have been sent to jail or into exile, and authorities have muzzled news media.
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