09-02-2016, 09:58 AM
Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov (Cyrillic Uzbek: Ислом Абдуғаниевич Каримов; Russian: Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов, Islam Abduganijevič Karimov) was the first President of Uzbekistan, in office since 1990.
Karimov was placed in an orphanage in Samarkand at birth, growing up to study economics and engineering.[2] He became an official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, becoming the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989. On 24 March 1990 he became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Karimov's election to the Uzbek Communist Party resulted after his predecessor Rafiq Nishonov failed to quell inter-ethnic clashes and instability in the Fergana Region.[3]
He declared Uzbekistan an independent nation on 31 August 1991 and subsequently won Uzbekistan's first presidential election on 29 December 1991, with 86% of the vote. The election was called unfair,[citation needed] with state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count, although the opposing candidate and leader of the Erk Liberty Party, Muhammad Salih, had a chance to participate. Karimov permitted the participation of the opposition organizations Birlik ("Unity") and the Islamic Renaissance Party until his efforts to consolidate power over Shukrullo Mirsaidov, a former Communist Party elite who had originally supported Karimov's rise to the Party presidency. The period of political thaw was brief; Karimov began to complicate the registration process of opposition parties during elections. As Birlik grew in strength as a "popular movement", it was denied the ability to register as a "political party" without the required 60,000 signatures. The Karimov government allowed Birlik one day to gather these signatures, 25,000 of which they rejected. Karimov effectively took authoritarian measures to block any meaningful opposition.[4] Since approximately February 2014, Karimov has imprisoned his elder daughter, Gulnara. She and her daughter live under armed guard and surveillance cameras.[5]
As of 29 August 2016, he is reported to be in intensive care, after suffering a stroke.[6][7][8] On 2 September, Reuters reported that Karimov died, citing senior diplomatic sources in the Uzbekistan government,[9] however, reports remain unconfirmed by Uzbek media or the government.[10]
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(my comment) The electoral process in Uzbekistan is much as it was in the old Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, as shown here:
Karimov sought another term in the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbek_presidential_election,_2007]December 2007 presidential election, despite arguments that he was ineligible due to the two-term limit on the presidency. On November 6, 2007, Karimov accepted the nomination of the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party to run for a third term.[28] On November 19, the Central Election Commission announced the approval of Karimov's candidacy,[29] a decision that Karimov's opponents condemned as illegal.[30]
Following the election on 23 December, preliminary official results showed Karimov winning with 88.1% of the vote, on a turnout rate that was placed at 90.6%. Observers from groups allied to the Karimov administration such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Commonwealth of Independent States gave the election a positive assessment.[31] However, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the election as lacking a "genuine choice," while others deemed the election, a "political charade,"[32] given that all three of Karimov's rivals began their campaign speeches by singing Karimov's praises.[33]
Karimov was reelected for a new term in the 2015 presidential election.[34] He won 90.39% of votes from a voter turnout of 91.08%. This is his third term under Uzbekistan's current constitution.[35] The election has been widely criticized by the western media and observers as being rigged even though monitoring missions sent by the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which include nations from the former USSR and China, deemed the election open and democratic.
More here, and much of it is disgusting as one would expect from a political leader who stops at nothing to prevent any opposition to his despotic rule:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_Karimov
Karimov was placed in an orphanage in Samarkand at birth, growing up to study economics and engineering.[2] He became an official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, becoming the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989. On 24 March 1990 he became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Karimov's election to the Uzbek Communist Party resulted after his predecessor Rafiq Nishonov failed to quell inter-ethnic clashes and instability in the Fergana Region.[3]
He declared Uzbekistan an independent nation on 31 August 1991 and subsequently won Uzbekistan's first presidential election on 29 December 1991, with 86% of the vote. The election was called unfair,[citation needed] with state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count, although the opposing candidate and leader of the Erk Liberty Party, Muhammad Salih, had a chance to participate. Karimov permitted the participation of the opposition organizations Birlik ("Unity") and the Islamic Renaissance Party until his efforts to consolidate power over Shukrullo Mirsaidov, a former Communist Party elite who had originally supported Karimov's rise to the Party presidency. The period of political thaw was brief; Karimov began to complicate the registration process of opposition parties during elections. As Birlik grew in strength as a "popular movement", it was denied the ability to register as a "political party" without the required 60,000 signatures. The Karimov government allowed Birlik one day to gather these signatures, 25,000 of which they rejected. Karimov effectively took authoritarian measures to block any meaningful opposition.[4] Since approximately February 2014, Karimov has imprisoned his elder daughter, Gulnara. She and her daughter live under armed guard and surveillance cameras.[5]
As of 29 August 2016, he is reported to be in intensive care, after suffering a stroke.[6][7][8] On 2 September, Reuters reported that Karimov died, citing senior diplomatic sources in the Uzbekistan government,[9] however, reports remain unconfirmed by Uzbek media or the government.[10]
[/url]
(my comment) The electoral process in Uzbekistan is much as it was in the old Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, as shown here:
Karimov sought another term in the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbek_presidential_election,_2007]December 2007 presidential election, despite arguments that he was ineligible due to the two-term limit on the presidency. On November 6, 2007, Karimov accepted the nomination of the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party to run for a third term.[28] On November 19, the Central Election Commission announced the approval of Karimov's candidacy,[29] a decision that Karimov's opponents condemned as illegal.[30]
Following the election on 23 December, preliminary official results showed Karimov winning with 88.1% of the vote, on a turnout rate that was placed at 90.6%. Observers from groups allied to the Karimov administration such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Commonwealth of Independent States gave the election a positive assessment.[31] However, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the election as lacking a "genuine choice," while others deemed the election, a "political charade,"[32] given that all three of Karimov's rivals began their campaign speeches by singing Karimov's praises.[33]
Karimov was reelected for a new term in the 2015 presidential election.[34] He won 90.39% of votes from a voter turnout of 91.08%. This is his third term under Uzbekistan's current constitution.[35] The election has been widely criticized by the western media and observers as being rigged even though monitoring missions sent by the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which include nations from the former USSR and China, deemed the election open and democratic.
More here, and much of it is disgusting as one would expect from a political leader who stops at nothing to prevent any opposition to his despotic rule:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_Karimov
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.