Nearly a week after Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan's longtime autocratic president, was officially declared dead after suffering a stroke, the country's parliament appointed Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as acting president on Thursday, setting the stage for the experienced bureaucrat to assume the role permanently in the latest sign of consensus among the country's elites over succession. According to a statement released on the Uzbek government's official website, Yuldashev broke with procedure during the parliamentary session and in an indication of Mirziyoyev's growing behind-the-scenes power, asked lawmakers to appoint the prime minister instead of himself due to the prime minister's "many years of [government] experience." Election monitors for the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) reported that the elections did not show “genuine competition” and that the “rigidly constrained media did not provide political debate.”

Karimov, the country’s authoritarian ruler of 27 years, died of a brain hemorrhage last week at the age of 78. Under the Uzbek constitution, a presidential election must now be held within three months, and Mr Mirziyoyev, who was the official mourner-in-chief at Karimov’s funeral and met Russian president Vladimir Putin this week, is widely expected to be elected.
Uzbekistan’s parliament appoints Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president after the death of President Islam Karimov.