IPA CIS Observers Visit Central Election Commission of Republic of Uzbekistan

The IPA CIS monitoring group, headed by Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ilyas Umakhanov, visited the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan (CEC) and met with its Chairman Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov.

The CEC Chairman informed the participants on the work carried out by the authorities of the Republic of Uzbekistan from 2017 to 2019 in order to improve electoral legislation, which resulted in the new Electoral Code adopted on 26 June 2019. Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov also briefed the IPA CIS observers on the activity of the CEC on introduction of new information and communication technologies at all stages of electoral process. 90 percent of polling stations have Internet access, 60 polling stations will be equipped with webcam during the elections on 22 December.

The CEC Chairman also told about the cascade method of training the election commissions’ staff members which included 180 thousand people since September 2019. He also presented data on the cooperation of the CEC with the national and international media concerning media coverage of all staged of electoral process, programs of political parties and individual candidates.

In the wake of the elections, the CEC of the Republic of Uzbekistan together with the other authorities has adopted the road map to step up the participation of women in public life. It enabled to increase representation of women among the deputies of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and encourage participation of the numerous women organizations of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the electoral process.

Ilyas Umakhanov told about the results of the long-term monitoring of the elections and provided a copy of the Report of the Expert Group on the Long-Term Monitoring of the Preparation and Holding the Elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the draft Conclusion on the Compliance of the Electoral Legislation Regulating the Elections on 22 December 2019 with international democratic elections standards. Ilyas Umakhanov also shared impressions on the short-term monitoring of the preparation for the elections and told about the monitoring plans of the IPA CIS observers on the election day.