Uzbekistan’s president sworn in

MOSCOW — Uzbekistan’s authoritarian leader was sworn in for a third presidential term Wednesday, news reports said, despite a constitutional two-term limit.

President Islam Karimov won 88% of ballots cast Dec. 23, handily beating three candidates who publicly supported his reelection. Four independent candidates were barred from the race.

Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the balloting in the Central Asian nation as undemocratic. Monitors said voters were deprived of a genuine choice.

Karimov, in power since before the 1991 Soviet Union breakup, has maintained a hostile stance toward the West after criticism of his government’s bloody crackdown on an uprising in the city of Andijon in 2005. Rights groups and witnesses said security forces killed hundreds, but the government put the toll at 187.