Will Karimov win Uzbek elections without waging a campaign?
On September 18, Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) finally announced that new presidential elections indeed would be held before the end of the year, on December 23, (1) ending speculation by many Central Asia watchers as to whether or not President Karimov would bother holding an election campaign at all, regardless of his country’s constitutional requirements. Those who predicted that he would not, may be only half wrong: thus far, although the CEC is making preparations for the balloting process itself, there has been very little in the way of actual campaigning and Karimov has yet to announce his own candidacy. The campaign period began on September 21 with five parties and one “initiative group of voters” fielding candidates: the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party nominated its central council first secretary, Dilorom Toshmuhammadova; (2) the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party nominated its central council chairman, Hurshid Dostmuhamedov (who c
