Shavkat Mirziyoev has taken the oath of office, beginning his second term as Uzbekistan's president by placing his hand on the Uzbek Constitution and the Koran during the November 6 ceremony in Tashkent.
Mirziyoev was declared the landslide winner of the October 24 presidential election, which Western observers called "not truly competitive."
The 64-year-old incumbent faced four little-known, pro-government candidates and took 80.1 percent of the vote. Three opposition parties were not allowed to register or have candidates in the race.
![Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev meets with supporters the day after the election. “The [election was] not as inclusive as one would have hoped for...,” Ivar Dale, a senior policy adviser with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, told RFE/RL.](https://gdb.rferl.org/05030000-0a00-0242-2c9b-08d9984a7c9c_cx0_cy12_cw0_w100_r1.jpg)
It was Uzbekistan’s sixth presidential election since the country of some 35 million people gained its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.
Mirziyoev, who came under criticism for cracking down on his critics and activists ahead of the vote, has struggled to counter impressions that his government is sliding back toward the authoritarian habits of his long-reigning predecessor, Islam Karimov.
