Uzbekistan approved a package of constitutional reforms in yesterday’s referendum with a 90.21% percentage, the Central Election Commission said today, citing preliminary results.

The reforms will void Shafkat Mirziyoyev’s presidential term, allowing him to serve two more seven-year terms, with his current term ending in 2026.

A constitutional revision referendum was held yesterday, consolidating the power of President Mirziyoyev, an authoritarian reformer who has vowed to push Central Asia’s most populous former Soviet republic into a new era of development.

Although the authorities claim that a two-thirds revision of the constitution will help democratize and improve the living standards of the 35 million people whose rights have been violated by the despotic regime for years, it is mainly President Mirziyoyev. who directly benefits.

Under Mirziyoyev’s predecessor, Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan was one of the most repressive countries in the region. Mirziyoyev, who came to power after Karimov’s death in 2016, touts the constitutional changes as a sign that Uzbekistan will put freedoms and human rights at the forefront.

According to APE-MPE, Reuters, AP