ALMATY: Uzbekistan votes in a parliamentary election on Sunday that is certain, in the absence of opposition parties, to produce a legislature loyal to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev despite some changes to the procedure after a constitutional reform.

Mirziyoyev has run Central Asia’s most populous nation, since 2016, winning broad popularity through liberal economic reforms and an easing of his predecessor’s draconian restrictions on political, religious and media freedoms.

However, political power in the nation of 37 million remains concentrated in Mirziyoyev’s hands, and parliament routinely rubber-stamps laws drafted by his cabinet.

The main change introduced under the 2023 constitutional reform is a switch to a mixed election system, in which only half of the 150 deputies are elected by voting for political parties.

The other 75 candidates will be elected individually, although all of them have also been nominated by Uzbekistan’s five registered parties, none of which oppose Mirziyoyev.

One area where Uzbek parliament deputies have been more outspoken than government officials is over the former Soviet republic’s relations with Russia.

For example, when Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed concern about an incident in an Uzbek school last month where a teacher hit a student who spoke Russian instead of Uzbek, Alisher Qodirov, who leads the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) party, told Moscow to mind its own business.

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Uzbekistan has close economic ties with Russia and millions of Uzbek migrant labourers work there to provide for their families at home.

But Tashkent has remained neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and has said it abides by Western sanctions against Moscow.