Uzbekistan’s Presidential Expiration Date

According to his opponents, the term of the President of Uzbekistan expires tomorrow, January 23. President Karimov’s opponents claim that because he was last sworn into office on January 22, 2000, his constitutional mandate ends when the calendar turns over to the 23rd. But according to the legislature, his mandate ends in December. Arkady Dubnov summarizes the issue.

The prevailing opinion in the republic is that everything is being done by the book, i.e. by Article 117 of the Constitution which was amended in the wake of the 2000 referendum. The amended article states that elections at all levels of state power are organized “the year when the term of office expires, in the first Sunday of the third decade of December.” It means that between tomorrow and December 23, 2007, the day of the presidential election, Karimov’s legitimacy as the president is going to be questionable (to put it mildly). Article 90 of the Constitution sets the term of office for presidents at 7 years and not at 7 years and 11 months…

As previously reported, Jahongir Shosalimov filed an inquiry with the Constitutional Court to decide when Karimov’s term ends. It should come as no surprise that the court ignored him.

That Karimov would stay in office was a foregone conclusion. The real question is whether or not he will serve a third (or fourth, depending on how one counts them) term.