The new polls were ordered a week after voters approved constitutional amendments in a referendum that would allow President Mirziyoyev to run for two more terms.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has called for snap presidential elections on July 9 to give himself a new mandate to help deal with the “sharp and complex processes” taking place in the world.
Mirziyoyev, 65, said on Monday that despite serving a second term of less than two years, he believed he needed a new mandate to institute further reforms in the country.
“Under the current complex situation in the world and in this region, finding the correct and effective development path and implementing it has become the most urgent and urgent issue.”
Voters in Uzbekistan approved a series of constitutional amendments in an April 30 referendum that would allow Mirziyoyev to run for two more terms and extend each term from five to seven years.
Constitutional reforms could keep Mirziyoyev in power until 2040.
Earlier on Monday, Mirziyoyev signed a law allowing early elections for the head of state, at which point he could be re-elected.
“Using the powers granted to the President of the country by Article 128 of the updated Constitution, I have signed a second important decree. According to it, the presidential election of our country will be held early,” the president said on Telegram.
In the country of 35 million people, there is no significant opposition figure to compete with Mirziyoyev, who has been praised at home and abroad for liberalizing the former Soviet republic and opening its economy to foreign trade and investment.
The president, who came to power in 2016 after the death of his predecessor, Islam Karimov, promised greater social and legal protections.
But election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the referendum was not representative.
“Uzbekistan’s constitutional referendum was technically well-prepared and widely touted as a move to strengthen rights and freedoms of all kinds, but it took place in an environment that lacked genuine political pluralism and competition,” an OSCE report said. the statement said.
