Tashkent - The Uzbek President, Mr Islam Karimov, was swept back into office in a nearly unanimous victory marred by his opponent's indirect admission that he only ran to make the vote look fair.
Mr Karimov, a former communist boss who for the last decade ran this isolated and poor Muslim state with an iron fist, was awarded a new five-year term with 91.90 per cent of the vote on a 95.10 per cent turnout. The poll was boycotted by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
