A “new Uzbekistan” celebrates this Sunday a referendum on equality, the death penalty and presidential competitions

The broad plebiscite, which affects two thirds of the Constitution, contemplates the extension of Mirziyoev’s mandate

28 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Uzbek population goes to the polls this Sunday in an extraordinary referendum that ranges from the abolition of the death penalty to the duration of presidential terms in what the authorities of the former Soviet republic have described as the beginning of a “new Uzbekistan “, while humanitarian organizations warn that these modifications are still somewhat far from international standards.

The constitutional referendum pursues the modification of 155 articles of the Magna Carta with the intention, broadly speaking, of turning the country into a “social state” through proposed changes that would triple the obligations of the State towards its citizens.

Passage of the referendum would guarantee equal rights between men and women, abolish the death penalty and give citizens the ability to appeal to the Constitutional Court. However, it would also extend the country’s President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s term from five to seven years, and enable him to run for at least two additional terms beyond 2026 — when he would have served his original two terms, after a decade. in power — as the presidential system was modified.

The referendum, however, will not ultimately affect the territorial integrity of Uzbekistan, according to the US international radio station Radio Free Liberty. One aspect of the plebiscite that contemplated the abolition of the right to secede from the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakistan — a vast territory in the west of the country with almost two million inhabitants — has finally been shelved after protests against this provision that left 21 killed by the repression of the authorities.

“Any ‘New Uzbekistan’ on paper,” Human Rights Watch has said, “has to actually address the long list of serious serious human rights concerns in the old Uzbekistan, including restrictions on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association.