ISTANBUL

Shavkat Mirziyoyev was reelected Uzbekistan's president with just over 87% of the votes in Sunday's snap election, preliminary results showed on Monday.

"In accordance with the law, a candidate who receives 50% of the votes plus one vote is considered the elected head of state. Since Shavkat Mirziyoyev, according to preliminary data, won 87.05% of the votes, he is legally elected president," Zayniddin Nizamkhodjaev, head of the Uzbek Central Election Commission, said during a briefing in the capital Tashkent.

Nizamkhodjaev further said that 15.6 million people, or 79.88% of voters, from approximately 20 million registered voters cast their ballots in the presidential election.

Other presidential candidates running in the election – Robakhon Makhmudova, Ulugbek Inoyatov and Abdushukur Khamzayev – received 4.43%, 4.02% and 3,74% of the vote, respectively.

​​​​​​​On April 30, Uzbek citizens voted on constitutional amendments that provide for the extension of the presidential term from the current five years to seven and also allow incumbent President Mirziyoyev to be elected again after two consecutive terms.

Following the vote, Mirziyoyev announced early polls, which the Election Commission decided to hold on July 9.