The election campaign has come to an end. All district election commissions are ready for the voting, which will be held on Sunday.

The legal foundation of the free democratic elections, based on the uniform, equal and direct election right, complies with the international standards and ensures fee expression of the citizens’ will.

The peculiarity of the present elections is that they are being held in qualitatively new political and socioeconomic conditions. The national election legislation was amended to correspond to these changes.

To increase the level of the law-making work, the number of the deputies’ seats in the lower chamber of the parliament was increased from 120 to 150. The role and the opportunities of participation of the civil society institutes in the elections have significantly increased.

Only political parties now have the right to nominate candidates to deputies. An institute of the political party representative was introduced. This person can participate during the vote counting at polling stations. The possible number of the authorized representatives of the candidates has been increased from 5 to 10.

Given the high importance of the issues of environmental protection and people’s health, 15 seats in the Legislative Chamber will be given to deputies elected from the Environmental Movement.

A total of 517 candidates were registered for the elections to the Legislative Chamber from the social-democratic party Adolat (Justice), democratic party Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival), Liberal-Democratic Party (UzLiDeP) and the People’s Democratic Party.

During the election campaign, 11 candidates were removed from the list based on their requests. Thus, the number of the candidates is now 506.

In accordance with the legislation, the parties and their candidates were provided with wide and equal rights to hold their election campaigns. They were given free airing time on TV and radio and equal space in the print media. All of the candidates used this opportunity.

During the election campaign, a total of 19,947 meetings with voters were held, including 4,364 by Adolat, 4,735 by Milliy Tiklanish, 5,591 by UzLiDeP and 5,257 by People’s Democratic Party.

The chairman of the Central Election Commission said at the briefing that no violations of the election legislation were registered during the monitoring of the pre-election events.

In accordance with the law on elections to Oliy Majlis, 135 electoral districts, 8,447 polling stations, including 44 at Uzbekistan’s representations in the foreign states, district and divisional election commission were formed.

The activity of the election commissions of all levels is based on the principles of lawfulness, publicity, independence and justice.

The lists of the voters include 17,215,700 citizens, which were informed on the date and place of voting by divisional election commissions.

The law allows the voters who cannot be present at their permanent residence address on the voting date to vote early. In case the voters due to their health or other reasons cannot visit the polling station, the divisional election commissions may organize voting at their residence on the voter’s request.

The voting boxes will be opened by the divisional election commission only after the announcement by its chairman of the end of the voting. The vote count is carried out by the divisional commission on each candidate separately. The results of the count are considered at the commission session, which prepares a protocol of the session and posts its copy for general acquaintance for at least 48 hours.

The protocols of the divisional commissions are submitted to the district commission. Based on these protocols, the results of the elections in the district are determined, and a corresponding protocol is sent to the Central Election Commission. The latter prepares a protocol on the results of the elections and makes a decision. The candidate who receives more than half of the voters that participated in the voting is considered elected.

On the election day, the deputies from the Environmental Movement are also elected by the movement’s higher body – the Conference. The list of the elected deputies and other documents related to the elections are submitted to the Central Election Commission, which checks the documents and makes a conclusion on their compliance with the law.

The publicity and openness of the elections are ensured by the institute of observers. The Central Election Commission registered more than 270 observers from 36 states and four international organizations, including OSCE ODIHR, CIS Executive Committee, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Organization of the Islamic Conference. Besides, district election commissions issued mandates to over 45,000 observers and authorized representatives of the political parties.

More than 630 representatives of the local and foreign media are participating in the coverage of the election process. To provide them with information in a timely manner, the Central Election Commission and regional election commission have opened their press centers and press groups, which hold press conferences, briefings and seminars.

The Central Election Commission will hold three briefings on 27 December – at 1 pm, 5 pm and 10.30 pm to inform the public on the process of the elections.

On 28 December, the commission will present the preliminary results of the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis.


UzA