TASHKENT, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Presidential elections will be held in Uzbekistan on December 23, the head of the Central Asian country's Central Election Commission announced Tuesday.
Mirzo-Ulugbek Abdusalamov told RIA Novosti that the election campaign would kick off on September 21.
December 2007 marks the end of President Islam Karimov's tenure, which was extended by parliament from five to seven years in 2002 after a national referendum. The authoritarian leader has ruled the country since 1989, when it was part of the Soviet Union.
Since Uzbekistan gained its independence in 1991, the country has yet to hold presidential elections deemed free and fair by international observers.
The election commission's press secretary, Beruny Alimov, said no candidates had yet announced their plans to stand for the presidency. No official announcements have been made on whether Karimov will seek to remain in power, and no likely contenders for the leadership have emerged in the country, notorious for ruthless crackdowns on opposition forces.
Relations with Western powers have been frosty since the violent suppression of protesters in the town of Andijan in 2005, in which human rights organizations said troops opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds. Tashkent has since expelled a number of foreign rights groups, and arrested dozens of protest organizers on charges of Islamist extremism. The country is currently under limited sanctions from the European Union.
The ex-Soviet country's main sources of revenue are exports of cotton, oil, natural gas and gold. Although the standard of living remains one of the lowest in the Commonwealth of Independent States, the economy has seen strong growth in recent years.
