The term of office of the President of Uzbekistan will be increased from five to seven years

"The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan is elected by citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot for a period of seven years", - the draft law "On the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan", published in the parliamentary newspaper Narodnoe Slovo (quoted by RIA Novosti), says.

In April 2002, the Parliament of the Republic approved the extension of the powers of the country's first president Islam Karimov from five to seven years, and in December 2011, amendments were adopted reducing the presidential term from seven to five years.

The current head of state, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, was elected president in December 2016 — three months after Karimov's death. In October 2021, he won the presidential election again, gaining 80.12% of the vote.

Last Friday, deputies of the lower house of the Parliament of Uzbekistan scheduled a referendum for April 30, and the Senate approved this decision. In particular, a large-scale revision of the country's basic law is planned, in which 27 articles are planned to be introduced, increasing their number from 128 to 155. Together with the amendments, they want to update the constitution by 65%, RIA Novosti notes. According to Kommersant, the new version of the constitution will also allow the current president to be elected for a third term.

In the summer, the clause on the elimination of the sovereign status of the Republic of Karakalpakstan was removed from the draft constitution. The reason for this was mass protests, which led to clashes between demonstrators and security forces. More than 200 people were injured during the actions, and criminal cases were initiated against 22 demonstrators.