Bishkek--Three candidates supportive of Uzbekistan's incumbent President Islam Karimov will run against him in a presidential vote next month, the election commission said on Saturday.
The commission in the tightly-controlled Central Asian country said it had registered four candidates, including Karimov, for the March 29 vote.
President Karimov, 77, seems certain to extend his 25-year grip on power having been nominated to stand again by the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan last month.
One of his challengers, Akmal Saidov, a member of parliament and chairman of the state-sponsored National Human Rights Center, is running for the second time, having won less than three percent of the vote in the last presidential poll in 2007.
Saidov, who represents the Democratic National Renaissance Party, has served as Uzbekistan's ambassador to France and UNESCO.
Also contesting the vote are Hotamjon Ketmonov, a teacher by training and the chairman of the People's Democratic Party, and Nariman Umarov, who leads the Social Democratic Party of Uzbekistan 'Adolat'(Justice).
All of the parties that have put forward candidates are openly supportive of Karimov's rule.
Karimov claimed almost 90 percent of the vote in the last presidential election.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has never recognised an election in Uzbekistan as free and fair.
The central election commission said the candidates were now able to begin their pre-election campaigns.
AFP
