Uzbekistan's Central Election Commission has announced the date for the country's next presidential election will be March 29, 2015.
The commission's December 26 announcement said campaigning for the post could begin immediately.
Incumbent President Islam Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan since 1991 independence, indicated last May he was interested in staying on at his post, despite the fact he will turn 77 at the end of January next year.
According to Uzbekistan's constitution, nobody can be elected president more than twice.
This restriction was overlooked when Karimov won a third term in office in December 2007. His terms in office have also been extended twice through referendums.
An amendment to the election laws at the end of 2011 reduced the presidential term in office from seven to five years and the date of the presidential poll was pushed back from the end of 2014 to the "first Sunday, 90 days after" the election commission announced the results of parliamentary elections.
Parliamentary elections were just held on December 21.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said those parliamentary elections were "competently administered but lacked genuine electoral competition and debate."
