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1st LD Writethru: Preliminary results of Uzbek presidential election to be announced Monday, turnout at 91 pct

Xinhua, March 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Preliminary results of Uzbekistan presidential election are expected to be announced at 4: 00 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) Monday, the country's Central Election Commission said Sunday.

At a news briefing held Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. local time ( 1700 GMT), the commission said that the election was valid as 91 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, far exceeding the legitimate minimum voter turnout of 33 percent.

The commission also confirmed that there were no violations during the voting process, which lasted for 14 hours as polling stations opened at 6:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) and closed at 8:00 p.m. ( 1500 GMT).

Over 9,000 polling stations were set up for over 20 million registered voters in all the 14 administrative districts of Uzbekistan, as well as in foreign countries.

The commission said in an online statement that about 300 observers from 43 countries were monitoring the election, along with five international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Those competing with the incumbent President Islam Karimov are Khatamjan Ketmanov of the People's Democratic Party, Nariman Umarov of the "Adolat" (Justice) Social Democratic Party and Akmal Saidov of the National Revival Democratic Party.

Karimov has ruled the Central Asian nation for over two decades, since before the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

According to Uzbek laws, winner of the presidency could declare victory with more than 50 percent of the valid votes.

The newly-elected president would serve a five-year term, according to a constitutional amendment endorsed by the country's Senate in 2011 that cut the president tenure of seven years set in 2002. Endite