Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan---Lambasted in the West over his human rights record, Uzbekistan's strongman Islam Karimov looks certain to extend his 25-year grip on power at a poll Sunday despite a bitter feud inside his own family.
Having headed the Central Asian nation since before the collapse of the Soviet Union, 77-year-old Karimov argues his near-total control is vital for security and modernisation in the strategically located country.
But critics say he has brutally crushed dissent to maintain his vice-like hold over a population of some 30 million while his family have turned on each other in a Shakespearean struggle for spoils that has seen his oldest daughter reportedly placed under house arrest.
"Without a strong government there will be chaos in society," Karimov told a small group of voters at a Wednesday meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent aired by state media.
"The time will come when we will give full freedom to our citizens, all human freedoms, and foremostly, freedom of the media."
Officially, former Communist-era boss Karimov -- who danced off persistent rumours of ill-health at recent Nowruz new year celebrations -- is facing three opponents, but in reality he has no genuine competition in his run at a fourth term in power.
All of the other candidates were put forward by parties that back his rule and the best known of them is famed for angrily rebutting accusations of shocking government rights abuses abroad.
"Uzbek society lacks democratic traditions," Kamoliddin Rabbimov, a political analyst from the country currently living in exile in France told AFP.
"Stability and control over society relies on the capacity of the regime to use violence."
- Daughter dispute -
As he moves toward another seven years in power, Karimov's main concern may be what to do with his daughter Gulnara -- a pop-singing, corruption-tainted tycoon once seen as a potential successor -- who dramatically fell from grace in an apparent palace power struggle.
For over a year now the once untouchable Gulnara Karimova, 42, has been under house arrest, her London-based spokesperson says, as the country's prosecutor probes her and business associates over connections to a "criminal gang".
Formerly a fixture at Western fashion events and capable of luring the likes of Sting and Gerard Depardieu to Uzbekistan, Karimova is also under investigation in Europe over allegations she extorted some $300 million (276 million euros) from Scandinavian telecoms firm TeliaSonera for access to the Uzbek market.
AFP
