Editing Politics of Uzbekistan (section)

==Executive branch==
{{office-table}}
|[[President of Uzbekistan|President]]
|[[Shavkat Mirziyoyev]]
|[[Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party]]
|8 September 2016
|-
|[[Prime Minister of Uzbekistan|Prime Minister]]
|[[Abdulla Oripov (politician)|Abdulla Oripov]]
|[[Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party]]
|14 December 2016 
|}
The [[President of Uzbekistan|president]] is elected by popular vote for a five-year term in elections that cannot be described as free. [[Freedom House]] rates Uzbekistan as absolutely unfree in both political institutions and civil society.

The prime minister and deputy ministers are appointed by the president. In effect, the executive branch holds almost all power. The judiciary lacks independence and the legislature, which meets only a few days each year, has little power to shape laws.

The president selects and replaces provincial governors. Under the terms of a December 1995 referendum, [[Islam Karimov]]'s first term was extended. Another national referendum was held January 27, 2002, to again extend Karimov's term. The referendum passed and Karimov's term was extended by act of the parliament to December 2007. Most international observers refused to participate in the process and did not recognize the results, dismissing them as not meeting basic standards. Karimov had himself re-elected for a technically unconstitutional third term in the [[2007 Uzbek presidential election|2007 election]].