I once thought there was once a chance that after Uzbekistan's first and only president died, maybe the country would open itself up a bit to real democracy. Okay, it was a very small chance. Uz has effectively been governed by a clique of influential power-brokers in various regional clans, especially as Islam Karimov's health declined in the last few years. But I still had a little bit of hope that something might get a little better, maybe the most populous Central Asian country could at least have a competitive election for the first post-Karimov leader? That seemed like it should have been a possibility.
So much for that.
So much for that.
