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MOSCOW MILLS — Uzbekistan's authoritarian leader was sworn in for a third presidential term Wednesday, news reports said, despite a constitutional two-term limit.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov won 88 percent of ballots cast in the Dec. 23 vote, handily beating three candidates who publicly supported his re-election. Four independent candidates were barred from the race.
Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the election in the Central Asian nation as undemocratic. Monitors said voters in the ex-Soviet nation were deprived of a genuine choice because all candidates publicly endorsed the incumbent.
Karimov, in power since before the 1991 Soviet breakup, has maintained a hostile stance toward the West since criticism of his government's bloody crackdown on an uprising in the Uzbek city of Andijan in 2005.
Rights groups and witnesses said security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least 700 people. Karimov's government, in contrast, put the death toll at 187 and accused Islamic militants of organizing a coup.
Later that year, Karimov ordered the closure of a U.S. air base in Uzbekistan.
Freedom House, a U.S.-based democracy watchdog, said in its annual report Wednesday that Uzbekistan remains among the world's most repressive societies.
The group called Karimov's re-election a "blatant violation" of the country's constitution.
