While the Ukraine was having its second presidential election, Uzbekistan was having a rather meaningless parliamentary election.
Five parties ran some 500 candidates for 120 seats in the lower house of parliament. These are the first elections since the country introduced a two-chamber parliament two years ago. But these weren’t really elections. Well, officially they were elections, but all parties and candidates had to pledge loyalty to incumbent President Karimov, brutal dictator and dear friend of Washington.
Tthe Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) deemed the election unfair. Uzbekistan is a member of the OSCE, but Karimov dismissed its authority: “The OSCE cannot have the exclusive right to assess elections… It represents Europe while we’re in Central Asia.’’
Having been to Kazakhstan and seeing remarkable social and economic liberalization, I’m pretty appalled at what I hear coming out of Uzbekistan. Karimov hailed the vote as a step towards democracy, with those five parties as a sign of a viable multi-party system. I say he’s on-track to end up like Conducător Nicolau CeauÅŸescu.
Trivia: What’s the difference between an Uzbek and Uzbekistani? An Uzbek means someone of Uzbek ethnicity. An Uzbekistani is a citizen of Uzbekistan. And with so many Uzbeks living in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and with so many non-Uzbeks in Uzbekistan, those two terms aren’t the same.
- BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
- « Is it any different now?
- » Stratfor.com on Iraq 2005
