Polls close in Uzbekistan referendum to extend President's term
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The constitutional amendments would increase the length of presidential terms from five to seven years, enabling the President to run for office twice more and hold the position until 2040.
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Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attends a news conference with his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Tashkent, Uzbekistan April 15, 2019 (Reuters)
Polls closed across Uzbekistan on Sunday, ending a day of voting in the Central Asian nation.
Voters in Uzbekistan went to the polls to decide on a constitutional amendment that would extend President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's rule until 2040.
Mirziyoyev, 65, became President in 2016 after the death of former President Islam Karimov.
He maintains that the constitution's revision will enhance government and quality of life in the Central Asian country with 35 million people, whose rights have long been severely curtailed.
But it is Mirziyoyev who is expected to gain the most in the country, as per observers.
The constitutional amendments would increase the length of presidential terms from five to seven years, enabling him to run for office twice more and hold the position until 2040.
They also permit non-farming land ownership and refer to Uzbekistan as a "social state" with expanded welfare obligations.
Additionally, the amendments would abolish the death penalty and establish greater legal protection for an individual's rights, such as the right to remain silent when the police are holding them and the concept of habeas corpus, which protects against wrongful and indefinite detention.
Mirziyoyev and his family voted in the capital, Tashkent. According to the Uzbek Election Commission, polling places opened at 8:00 am (0300 GMT). They will close at 8:00 pm. The participation rate reached 73.13% seven hours after the opening of the polls.
Some of the polling places were decorated with flowers, and others gave new voters baseball caps and T-shirts with the referendum emblem.
If more than half of the 19.7 million eligible voters in Uzbekistan take part, the referendum will be declared valid.
