The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tashkent

Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov won another landslide victory, election officials said Monday, but former Soviet states and Western observers were split over whether the vote had been fair. Karimov won a new seven-year term with 88.1 percent of the vote in Sunday's elections, the Central Election Commission said, compared with 91 percent in 2000. While Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) welcomed the result, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said it had not met democratic standards. Karimov, who has led Uzbekistan for 18 years, faced three opponents, each of whom were credited with three percent of the vote. The 69-year-old leader had banned independent media and political parties.