Voters across Uzbekistan on Sunday were casting their ballots in a presidential election in which the situation in Afghanistan and the need for greater connectivity to boost development figured in the low-key campaign.

Incumbent President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, 64, is widely anticipated to win a second term in the absence of any real opposition from the four other parties that are in the fray.

Voting across the Central Asian country of some 36 million people began at 8 am local time and will continue until 8 pm. Voting percentage at about 12 noon local time was 12.3%, as per official data.

As part of the campaign, meetings and roundtables were organised in Tashkent to discuss pressing issues such as economic recovery in the post-pandemic era and the situation in Afghanistan. With some 800,000 first-time voters among the 19 million registered voters, many youngsters actively participated in the roundtables that were joined by several ministers.

Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016 after the death of his mentor, Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s first post-independence president who ruled the country for 27 years.

A second term for Mirziyoyev will allow him to deepen his reform campaign and further open up Uzbekistan to foreign trade and investment. Mirziyoyev has also struck a balance in his country’s relations with Russia and the West, while pushing forward with connectivity projects with South Asia.

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During a virtual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 11 last year, Mirziyoyev had proposed that Uzbekistan, India and Iran should hold a trilateral dialogue to promote connectivity through Chabahar port.

India responded with alacrity to this suggestion and the first meeting of a trilateral working group was held just three days later.

During the campaign, the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in mid-August also came up for discussion, and senior Uzbek officials insisted that the war-torn country should not be isolated in view of its urgent humanitarian needs. The officials also called for the formation of a government in Kabul that includes all ethnic groups and is based on democratic principles.

The officials also said Uzbekistan plans to diversify the landlocked country’s connectivity options to increase access to the ocean and large markets such as India.