TASHKENT: Uzbekistan has passed a package of constitu-tional amendments in a referendum, preliminary data showed on Monday, which will allow President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to run for two more seven-year terms when his current one ends in 2026. The reform, passed with 90.21% of Sunday’s vote, resets Mirziyoyev’s term count, while promising the Central Asian nation’s citizens greater social and legal protections. Mirziyoyev, 65, has opened up the former Soviet republic’s economy, greatly im-proved ties with the West, and curbed the powers of security services whose dominance had in previous decades turned the country of 35 million into a police state. Although Tashkent’s Western partners are unlikely to approve of the extension of presidential powers, Uzbekistan risks little given the West is seeking support from ex-Soviet nations in its efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine. –Agencies
