Islam Karimov has been nominated for president from the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan. His election manifesto was published in local media and broadcasted via state owned TV channels.

He says that one of his priority tasks will be protecting the interests of the middle class. The issue of guaranteeing people’s rights and freedoms will remain "the highest values", he says in the election manifesto.

Raising the army’s might, improving the living conditions of servicemen, developing a multi-party system and observing the principle of non-interference into internal affairs of other states are mentioned as priority among other things in Karimov’s election manifesto.

Uzbek president said at present, Uzbekistan, above all relying on its own might and resources, is progressing with confidence along the path of building a law-based state with a socially-oriented market economy, forming a civic society in the country, the important value and priority of which are the people and their interests.

"Today, we are on the threshold of reforming and modernizing our society, implementing long-term tasks which ensure the development and flourishing of the country and its joining the list of developed states of the world," President Karimv said.

Speaking about the most important and priority tasks to achieve these goals, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said: "The first is that our main task should be continuing and reinforcing the policy, started by ourselves and which has justified itself, on modernizing the country, renewing the society, further stepping up reforms aimed at boosting economic development and ensuring a stable macro-economic balance; the policy on giving privileges and advantages to entrepreneurship, small business and farmers which are the main factor and condition for a successful implementation of our goals."

The second priority task will remain to be the interests of the representatives of the middle class, entrepreneurship, farmers, the private sector, the owners of material and intellectual property, their support and creating for them new privileges and opportunities.

The main point of attention during the process of implementing economic and social policy should be the observance of principles which exclude the excessive stratification of social groups depending on the level of their lives and income, Uzbek leader said in his programme.

Uzbek head said: "The third is a successive and stage-by-stage transition from a strong state to a strong civil society, which was fairly necessary during the process of building and reinforcing the national statehood and this will be our main and the most important task in future."

"In this field, we should pay a special attention to the fact that interference by state agencies in the activities of economic entities should be completely ended, the process of step-by-step transferring the state agencies’ powers and functions to local governments and neighbourhood committees, above all in resolving economic and social issues, financing the public utilities sector and work on improving their living conditions, ensuring employment among population and protecting the citizens’ interests, should be stepped up."

"The fourth is that the issues of further developing reforms on liberalizing all fields of our lives, and on this basis strengthening people’s interests, their rights and freedoms as the highest values should be always in the centre of our attention. We will further do our utmost for the implementation of a slogan "The interests of people are above all", Islam Karimov added.

One of the most topical tasks is the implementation of all legal and organizational measures with the purpose of further developing democratic processes, developing a multi-party system, developing the role of civil society institutions and NGOs, reinforcing their rights and powers, raising their status and reputation in society and turning the media into "the fourth estate" in reality.

The fifth is that raising the efficiency and practical significance of measures on reforming and liberalizing courts and judicial system remains to be one of the important tasks. This is an integral part of forming a law-based state, and most importantly, ensuring the independence of courts in practice.

In particular, it is of great significance to ensure the practical implementation of laws on abolishing the death penalty, transferring to courts the right to issue arrest warrants and forming an efficient system to this effect, he said.

Uzbek president said: "In other words, today we should take new specific steps and raise to a modern level the practical implementation of a principle "Justice is the supremacy of the law".

"The sixth is that in our foreign policy we strictly observe the principle of non-interference into internal affairs of other states, equal cooperation with foreign countries, resolving any conflicts and problems by peaceful means using political and legal instruments, as well as peaceful coexistence with countries which are close to and far from us on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation and accord," he said.

Continuing the course aimed at reinforcing peace and stability in the country, further strengthening civic accord, friendship between the representatives of different nationalities and religions should become the rule of our everyday lives, Uzbek leader said.

Bearing in mind the growing challenges and threats to security and stability in the world and in the region, the issue of raising the might of the armed forces, further continuing the process of modernizing the national army, strengthening the country’s defence capability, ensuring the integrity of the state borders will remain to be priority in future.

Islam Karimov said the most important integral part in implementing this task will be the issues of social protection of servicemen who devote their lives to the noble deed of protecting the Motherland, further improving their living conditions, raising their salaries and providing them with every support.

"The seventh is that the priority field of the government policy will remain to be issues of raising the people’s real income and well-being, the successful implementation of important social programmes by ensuring a stable economic growth."

"Our prospects and our future fully depend on how we will ensure peace and stability in our homes and in the country as a whole; how kind, tolerant and generous our hearts are; on how we will preserve mutual understanding and tolerance in our society," Uzbek leader said.