Voters in Tajikistan have overwhelmingly endorsed changes to its constitution allowing the president, Emomali Rahmon, to run for an unlimited number of terms.

In a statement, the central election commission said 94.5% of votes cast in Sunday’s referendum had backed the 40 constitutional changes, while only 3.3% were against.

Turnout in the former Soviet central Asian country was 92%, or just over 4 million people, the CEC said.

As well as lifting the term limit for Rahmon, the amendments also lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 30, and ban the formation of parties based on religion.

The 63-year-old autocrat has ruled Tajikistan for nearly a quarter of a century, demonstrating what critics say is an increased disregard for religious freedoms, civil society and political pluralism in recent years.

But residents voting on Sunday in Dushanbe, the country’s capital and home to nearly a million people, appeared enthusiastic in their support for Rahmon, who led the country out of a five-year civil war that began in 1992, less than a year after independence.

“Rahmon brought us peace, he ended the war, and he should rule the country for as long as he has the strength to,” voter Nazir Saidzoda, 53, told AFP on Sunday.

The term limit amendment applies only to Rahmon, owing to the “Leader of the Nation” status parliament voted to grant him last year, which also affords him and his family permanent immunity from prosecution.

The lowering of the age limit for presidential candidates could position Rahmon’s 28-year-old son, Rustam, for an early succession, while restrictions on political parties come amid a trial of key members of a banned Islamic party.

The Islamic Renaissance party of Tajikistan (IRPT) had been viewed as moderate before the government branded it a terrorist group last year, stripping away the most significant formal opposition to Rahmon’s regime.

In the months before the referendum, authorities pushed through a number of initiatives glorifying Rahmon’s rule, which is regularly criticised by rights organisations for being corrupt and repressive.

This month, the autocrat signed a law creating a holiday in his honour proposed by parliamentarians in the two-chamber legislature, which is completely loyal to his administration.

In February, the republic’s youth affairs committee launched a contest for the best essays by schoolchildren in praise of his “heroic” rule.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Saturday said the Tajik government had been intimidating independent media outlets in the build-up to the referendum.

“Depriving the population of freely-reported news and information before such a crucial political event constitutes an all-out denial of democracy,” Johann Bihr, the head of RSF’s eastern Europe and central Asia desk, said in a statement.