Uzbeks vote to re-elect hardline president

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

TASHKENT (AFP) — Uzbeks turned out en masse to vote Sunday in an election where hardline President Islam Karimov faced only token opposition in his bid for a fresh seven-year term at the head of the Central Asian state.

Victory for Karimov was seen as a foregone conclusion in a country with no independent media or opposition parties.

The 69-year-old, best known in the outside world for a bloody 2005 crackdown on unrest in the eastern city of Andijan, barely campaigned, while his three nominal challengers were virtual unknowns.

After voting in the capital Tashkent's polling station number 644, Karimov said Uzbekistan "is a state of democratic laws," reported pro-government news site www.press-uz.info.

But many in this ex-Soviet republic of 28 million...