IPA CIS Observer Team Starts Long-Term Monitoring of Elections to Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of Republic of Uzbekistan

Members of the IPA CIS Observer Team visited Tashkent in order to perform long-term monitoring of the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Republic of Uzbekistan. It is the first time the IPA CIS observers monitor the elections in Uzbekistan – a new Member Nations of the IPA CIS – upon the invitation of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The distinctive feature of this campaign is its organization in accordance with the new Election Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan which entered into force in 2019. The document incorporated a number of legislative acts regulating the electoral process, as well as integrated the majority of recommendations made by the elections participants, international organizations and monitoring missions.

On 1 December 2019, Acting Director of the International Institute for Monitoring Democracy Development, Parliamentarianism and Suffrage Protection of Citizens of IPA CIS Member Nations Ekaterina Goloulina, Head of the Election Observation Department of the IIMDD IPA CIS Yulia Anisimova and IIMDD PA CIS expert Stanislav Tkachenko visited the headquarters of the CIS Observer Mission and discussed with Head of the Mission Evgeniy Kozyak the cooperation between the representatives of the IPA CIS and the CIS Executive Committee during the long-term and short-term monitoring of organization and holding the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

According to the working schedule, they also met with leaders of Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (UzLiDeP) which has the largest fraction in the current Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan (52 deputies out of 150). Shavkat Mirziyoyev was nominated a Party’s candidate for the presidential elections and secured an overwhelming victory in 2016. Chair of the Executive Committee of the UzLiDeP Political Council Aktam Khaitov told the IPA CIS representatives about party’s program, stages of nominating and registering candidates and campaigning projects. The representatives of the campaign office highlighted the need to campaign in social networks and in the field. The politicians highly evaluated the new Election Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan and told about the systematic preparatory work carried out with all parties and movements and international organizations. They also stressed the legitimacy of the decision to adopt the Code four months before the elections. The meeting also discussed the issues of relating to the cooperation of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan with the parties, its extensive work during the preparation of the parliamentary elections, training stuff for district and local election commissions and drafting explanatory materials. Aktam Khaitov also focused on the methods of interaction with public observers, including through special brochures designed in order to highlight significant aspects of monitoring and to help such observers to form ethical guidelines during monitoring.

In the afternoon the IPA CIS Observer Team visited 139^th and 141th district election commissions of Tashkent and a few local election commissions. As a result of the meetings, it was decided that the preparation for the elections runs in accordance with the Program for Key Actions for Holding Elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted by the Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan on 20 September 2019, violations of dates were not determined, equipment of district and local election commissions with computers, software products and information materials are almost completed. Members of election commissions have received special training including training on work with electronic voting lists. Situation centers are established at district and local electoral commissions. Voter list verification is almost completed.

On 2-3 December 2019 the IPA CIS Observer mission is intended to meet with the officials of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, all parliamentary parties and to establish interaction on the issues of organizing the work of the Observer Team during the short-term monitoring.