Uzbekistan's presidential election, in which authoritarian leader Islam Karimov faced three candidates who publicly supported him, failed to meet democratic standards, a leading international democracy and security group said Monday.
The election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement that Sunday's vote "was held in a strictly controlled political environment, leaving no room for real opposition, and the election generally failed to meet many OSCE commitments for democratic elections."
