INFORMATION

on appeals received by the Central Election Commission during the preparation and holding of the referendum

During the referendum period from March 14 to May 1, 2023, a total of 308 appeals (including 157 written, 107 oral and 44 electronic) were submitted to the Central Election Commission.

Of these, 196 appeals concerned the organization and holding of the referendum, including appeals about information on the question put to the referendum, the application of referendum legislation, registration as a member of the Precinct Referendum Commission and the salaries of its members, repairs to the precinct building, and questions about the exercise of the rights of citizens participating in the referendum, explanations of the procedure for determining or changing the referendum precinct and dissatisfaction with the work of precinct commission members.

It is worth noting that during the referendum no appeals were filed on issues that fall under the competence of the Central Election Commission, in particular, to annul the decisions of the District Commissions and to invalidate the results of the Referendum District.

The 112 appeals received by the Central Election Commission were not related to the organization or holding of the referendum. Of these, 48 concerned judicial and legal matters, 46 social matters, 11 proposals for legislation in force, 5 the organization and administration of the election of chairpersons (aksakals) of the citizens' assemblies, and 2 land issues.

​​In its turn, 308 appeals received by the Central Election Commission were examined in detail; in the case of 222 of them, legal explanations were provided to the authors on the relevant articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan and on the election and referendum laws; 77 of them were referred to the relevant state bodies and organizations for consideration in accordance with Article 25 of the Law “On Appeals of Natural and Legal Persons”; in the case of the remaining 9 appeals received repeatedly, where no new facts were presented, consideration of the complaints was suspended after discussion with the authors and at their request (further details in the Annex).

In addition, during the period of the referendum in the Republic of Uzbekistan, an up-to-date information center (call center) was established at the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan to quickly and effectively examine the appeals of natural and legal persons and promptly provide citizens with legal explanations and advice on issues related to the referendum.

In addition, a short number 1200 was established for citizens wishing to call the call center within the country, and a line with a separate number (998) 55-500-12-00 was created for citizens living abroad, whose uninterrupted operation was ensured.

It is worth noting that the call center, which involved 10 specialists from the Prosecutor General's Office, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, the Interior Academy, the National Guard, the Ministry of Digital Technology, Tashkent State Law University, and the Central Election Commission, operated from April 1, 2023, until the official announcement of the referendum results, i.e., from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily on May 1 and from 8 a.m. to midnight on voting day, according to the duty list approved by the Central Election Commission.

During the referendum, the call center received a total of 1,470 appeals. Most of the calls received concerned the following areas: 301 about the application of the referendum legislation; 291 about the determination of referendum precincts; 285 - about the introduction of proposals in the draft constitutional law; 235 - about the organization of the activities of the District and Precinct Referendum Commissions; 93 - about assistance to citizens in exercising their right to vote; 9 - about violations of the referendum legislation in the referendum precinct. 248 - appeals on other day-to-day issues not related to the referendum. 8 incoming calls were registered as anonymous calls.

A total of 9 reports and appeals on the day of the referendum concerned violations of the law in voting at individual referendum precincts, i.e., one person filled out several ballots and threw them into the ballot boxes, including 5 in the city of Tashkent, 2 in the Samarkand region, and the remaining 2 in the Kashkadarya region and the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The Central Election Commission has taken special control of these appeals and has reviewed them jointly with the District Commissions.

Upon reviewing these protocols, in one case the stated facts were confirmed, while in the remaining 8 cases documents were duly issued stating that the facts of the violations were not confirmed.

In the review of these appeals on violations during voting by the Central Election Commission and the District Referendum Commissions, the information on 1 appeal was corroborated, while in the remaining 8 cases the reports were properly made as unconfirmed information on the alleged violations.

In short, all appeals from citizens, referendum organizers, and journalists were answered in a timely and qualified manner by the relevant staff of the Central Election Commission, teams of leading election and referendum specialists and experts, and legal scholars. None of the appeals received went unheeded.