Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who was appointed as Uzbekistan’s acting president, believes that his main task is to continue the policy pursued by the country’s first President Islam Karimov who passed away on September 2.
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According to Uzbekistan’s Constitution, the head of the upper house of parliament, the Senate, would assume presidential authority for a period of three months if the president dies or is unable to perform duties.
A presidential election is now scheduled to take place on December 4th.
The BBC’s Abdujalil Abdurasulov says the election may well be just a formality – as it was during President Karimov’s rule.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan since 2003.
Karimov, 78, died after a stroke and was buried at the weekend in his home city of Samarkand.
RIA Novosti’s source is cited as saying that the police are looking for “those social media users that spread the untrue information about Karimov’s date of death and that spread panic about a possible worsening of the country’s socio-political situation”.
Mirziyoyev was born July 24, 1957. He has been Karimov’s “right-hand man”, though he apparently preferred to play that role behind the scenes, and made rare TV appearances.
However, political analyst Andrey Saidov said Mr Mirziyoyev’s rise to the presidency was not certain as “he is not that popular among the people”.
RFE/RL’s Uzbek service, Ozodlik, said 12 people had been detained in the Namangan region for sharing news about Karimov’s presumed death through the Telegram and WhatsApp messaging services.
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Karimov had often justified his harsh ruling by the alleged danger Islamic extremists posed.
