TASHKENT, October 21

The upcoming parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan, scheduled for December 22, will be held in transparent manner, taking into account international requirements, which are fully taken into account by the Election Code which adopted in June. This was announced on Monday in an interview with TASS by the chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the republic Mirzo-Ulugbek Abdusalomov. “During the development of the code, the experience of more than 50 countries was studied, including Russia. I especially want to emphasize the consideration of the recommendations of the missions of international election observation organizations, including the OSCE / ODIHR, SCO, CIS, the World Association of Electoral Bodies, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, proposals of the Venice Commission, as well as international electoral principles and standards, "said M.Abdusalomov. According to him, the Electoral Code, the adoption of which was initiated by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, brought together the norms of almost 30 previously existing legislative documents, including five laws regulating relations related to the preparation and conduct of elections of the country's president, deputies of the Legislative Chamber, members of the Senate, deputies regional, district and city kengashes that regulated the activities of the CEC, as well as guarantees ensuring the free expression of the will of citizens.

As the head of the CEC noted, in November 2018, an expert discussion of the draft Election Code took place in Bukhara with the participation of a number of international experts, including Russian experts in the electoral field. "Given the intensification of relations of strategic partnership and cooperation of Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation, which have recently been filled with qualitatively new stage thanks to the heads of our states, and cooperation between the Central election commissions of Uzbekistan and Russia has acquired an even closer and mutually beneficial character," mentioned the head of the CEC.

In accordance with the Election Code, election commissions are now authorized to consider complaints from individuals and legal entities about violations of suffrage, conduct checks on these complaints and give written answers within three days. Moreover, the election commissions are obliged to respond to appeals received less than six days before the election or on election day.

The Election Code also excluded the restriction on the participation in elections of persons held in prison for crimes that do not constitute a great public danger.

"I want to emphasize the strengthening of public control and the expansion of the powers of civil society institutions during the elections. Now, along with political parties, representatives of self-government bodies have also been given the opportunity to observe the elections, this will enhance transparency and public accountability of the electoral process," Abdusalomov said. In his opinion, great importance has the fact that the Election Code establishes a 30 percent quota for women when nominating candidates for deputies.

Single Electronic List of Voter

An important innovation of the election campaign was the launched single electronic list of voters (SELV), which currently includes 20.5 million citizens of Uzbekistan. SELV will allow the formation of a single electoral portal, allowing the voters to receive all the election data on the CEC website. Work in this direction by the CEC began about a year ago after the adoption of a decree of the president of the country “On measures to introduce modern information and communication technologies in the electoral process”.

“When developing this innovative election mechanism, Russia's experience in this direction was thoroughly studied,” the head of the CEC noted. According to him, other information technologies are also planned for the parliamentary elections. This is an electronic database of constituencies and precincts, members of their commissions with the subsequent publication of this information on the official website of the CEC, an electronic database of candidates for deputies of all levels, an interactive map of constituencies and precincts, an official website and social networks.

The Saylov-2019 mobile application ("Elections-2019") has already been created, which contains regulations, information on election commissions, guidelines, training materials, etc. A call center is available at the international press center of the CEC. There you can get answer to any questions about the election. All this will make the upcoming elections as open and transparent as possible.

In the parliamentary elections and local representative bodies, which will be held under the motto “New Uzbekistan - New Elections,” it is planned to form over 16 thousand electoral districts and precincts, including more than 50 outside of Uzbekistan, 7 of these precincts will soon begin working in the Russian Federation. They will be located in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Rostov-on-Don.

In accordance with the Election Code, election campaigning is not allowed the day before the election and directly on election day.

The Electoral Code of Uzbekistan does not provide for the organization of exit polls. The upcoming expression of the will of the people will be considered valid if at least 33% of those included in the voter lists take part in it. To win the election, candidates will need to get 50% plus one vote.

In accordance with the Election Code, the first session of the Legislative Chamber of a new composition should be held no later than two months after the election.

UZBEKISTAN ELECTIONS

SOCIETY: UZBEKISTAN-ELECTIONS-PARTIES

In Uzbekistan, parliamentary elections will be held with the strengthening of the positions of political parties - CEC

TASHKENT, October 21

On December 22, 2019, the elections for deputies to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan and for deputies to the local Kengashes of people's deputies will be held. It should be noted that, this event will be held for the first time in accordance with the new Election Code of Uzbekistan.

In this regard, I would like to highlight a number of important new additions in the electoral law. So, the institution of quotas for deputy seats for representatives of the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis is excluded. The participation of all 150 deputies of the Legislative Chamber in the popular elections has been fixed. Thereby a healthy inter-party competition has been created in the country with equal conditions for all political parties. And each political party can nominate its own candidate.

 The Election Code also provides for the Single Electronic List of Voters of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which is a state information resource containing information about citizens who participates in the voting, addresses of their permanent and temporary residency. The main goal of the Single Electronic List of Voters is to implement the most important principle of equal suffrage, that expressed in the Code that every citizen participating in the elections has one vote.

The Election Code introduced a single ballot for voting on election day, including ahead of schedule, and accordingly the term “ballot paper” was abolished.

It should be noted that the Election Code has been developed taking into account the recommendations of the Office for Democratic Institutions and human rights of the OSCE, the World Association of Electoral Authorities and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Thus, the modernization of the electoral system and accordingly, the adoption of the Election Code is justified by the demand of the times.

New Election Code Helps Organize and streamlining the rules of national suffrage, increases the clarity and accessibility of the electoral law, creates a stable legal basis for the formation of independent election commissions with broad powers and modern technical equipment, as well as broadens the guarantees of electoral rights ensuring the free expression of the will of citizens.

Monitoring of the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (parliament) of Uzbekistan scheduled for December 22 this year will be conducted by more than 600 observers from about 50 states and international organizations, Mirzo-Ulugbek Abdusalomov, chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Republic, told TASS on Monday.

“We expect that more than 600 foreign observers from about 50 states of America, Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as from all international organizations of the world whose activities are related to monitoring of the elections will conduct monitoring of the election campaign and election itself. For example, the OSCE / ODIHR plans to direct to upcoming elections the mission which includes nearly 300 observers from the Central Executive Committee of Russia and the CIS Parliamentary Assembly that they are ready to participate in the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis. In addition, the arrival of the mission of the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, representatives of several independent civil society institutions from the United States is expected, "said Abdusalomov.

According to him, during the election campaign(that has begun) and directly on the voting day, there will not be closed any single polling station to foreign observers.
According to the head of the CEC, if someone from foreign observers wants to visit a polling station located, for example, in a women's colony, he will have to inform the Central Election Commission in advance. “We will coordinate this issue with the competent authorities. For this is primarily due to the safety of observers - this is customary throughout the world,” he said. The so-called long-term observers are expected to arrive in the republic in mid-November, and short-term observers a few days before election day.

As Abdusalomov also said, in time for and without significant violations, they signed up and received admission to the upcoming elections all five officially registered political parties in the republic.

These are the Movement of Entrepreneurs and Business People - the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (UzLiDeP), the Democratic Party Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival), the Social Democratic Party Adolat (Justice), the People’s Democratic Party and Ecological Party of Uzbekistan. In accordance with the Election Code, all conditions are created in the republic for agitation of their election programs and bringing their essence to voters.