Uzbekistan organized a free, fair, transparent and democratic election say international monitors who had been invited to witness the 29 March presidential election in the country.

According to the country’s election commission, incumbent President Islam Karimov retained his post by receiving 90.39 percent of the total popular vote. The commission noted that the total registered Uzbek voters were approximatel 20 million individuals, of whom nearly 91.01 percent cast their votes.

Four major political parties participated in the elections with their candidates being Islam Karimov of  Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, Hotamzhon Ketmonov of People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, Akmal Saidov of Democratic Party of Uzbekistan Milliy Tiklanish and Narimon Umarov of Social Democratic Party of Uzbekistan- Adolat.

More than 300 international observers from 43 countries, including from five international organizations OIC, AWEB, CIS, SCO and OSCE, monitored the polls. In addition, nearly 35,000 local observers of the four Uzbek political parties were also mandated to monitor the election process. Nearly 1000 representatives of domestic and foreign media were also invited to cover the electoral process

Source: KUNA