Uzbekistan's parliament named Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president on Thursday, following the death of President Islam Karimov.

The parliament said stability and law and order have to be maintained. Karimov died of a stroke last week aged 78 after ruling the Central Asian country for 27 years. Under the constitution, the chairman of the Senate should have become interim president, but he turned down the job and proposed Mirziyoyev instead.

A presidential election is now scheduled to take place on December 4th. Many analysts expect Mirziyoyev to win.