Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced on Monday that he would call a snap presidential election to give himself a new mandate to deal with the world’s “sharp and complex processes,” but he did not specify a date.

In an April 30 referendum, Uzbek voters approved a package of constitutional amendments that allows Mirziyoyev to run for two more terms and increases the length of each term from five to seven years.

Despite having served less than two years of his current term, Mirziyoyev, 65, stated that he felt he needed a new mandate to carry out further reforms in the Central Asian nation.

“In the current situation, where sharp and complex processes are prevailing in the world and our region, finding the right and effective path of development and its implementation is becoming the most acute and urgent issue,” he said.

Mirziyoyev did not specify a date for the vote, but Uzbek law requires at least two months’ notice.

In the country of 35 million people, there are no major opposition figures who can compete with Mirziyoyev, who has been praised both at home and abroad for liberalising the former Soviet republic and opening up its economy to foreign trade and investment.

info source – Reuters