TASHKENT, Dec 5 (AFP) - Uzbekis Sunday voted for a new parliament in elections conducted under intense security because the ruling dictatorship said it was afraid that Islamists would interrupt the vote.
The election was strongly criticized by outside observers for failing to meet democratic standards, and in a rare gesture of protest the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe refused to send on observer group to the vote.
More than 76 percent of Uzbekistan's 12.5 million voters had visited the polls to choose 250 candidates for the single-chamber parliament called the Oly Mazhlis.
Masses of police and interior ministry troops armed with automatic weapons guarded polling places and government buildings in the Uzbek capital.
Uzbek security forces said they feared Islamic groups would try to show their anger at President Islam Karimov's regime by carrying out attacks on election day.
Karimov, who has ruled the Central Asian republic with an iron fist since its independence in 1991, has blamed Islamists for several acts of violence in the impoverished republic this year.
They were charged with carrying out blasts that killed 16 people and wounded 128 in Tashkent in February. More recently, 23 people were killed in fighting last month between Uzbek troops and Islamists near Yangiabad, some 120 km (75 miles) east of Tashkent.
But despite official fears, voters actively visited polls across this ex-Soviet republic of 24 million people.
Officials said they were satisfied with the turnout, but opposition figures said they doubted it was as high as officials had claimed.
Western observers and members of the ex-Soviet republic's tiny opposition have criticized Uzbekistan's electoral laws, saying there is no way the vote would meet democratic standards.
The head of a small assessment team sent by the OSCE, Madeleine Wilkins, said it had been decided not to send observers because of concern the elections could not be truly competitive.
"The specific concerns include the involvement of state administration in all aspects of the election and restrictions on fundamental freedoms which are necessary, we think, for the emergence of genuine opposition," she said.
Five pro-government parties are standing, as well as representatives of citizens' groups and government departments who are also thought to be supporters of Karimov's regime.
Two opposition parties, Erk and Birlik, were banned from the race after they failed to meet the government's stringent registration requirements, and independent media have been crushed.
Representatives from Erk, which is an Islamic party, hinted several months ago that they may attempt to put a stop to the election.
