THE CIS MISSION: THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN UZBEKISTAN IS PROGRESSING IN THE SPRIT OF AN OPEN CONTEST

The period of electoral campaigning in Uzbekistan continues in observance of the country’s legislation. Equal conditions have been created for the presidential candidates to present their programmes and to meet voters. On the whole, the election campaign is progressing in the spirit of an open contest and at a high organizational level.

This is the opinion of the mission of observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as voiced at a briefing held in Tashkent on 29 November 2016 for mass media representatives. Members of the mission set forth their preliminary conclusions and evaluations of the electoral process going on in the country in an intermediate report on the observation of the preparation and conduct of the elections of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. At the same time they said that they were performing their functions freely and independently.

Giving a detailed description of all the phases of the current election campaign, legislative bases and changes and additions made to norm-setting regulatory acts, these observers from the CIS emphasized that work on the preparation and conduct of the forthcoming elections was being carried out in a consistent manner.

Members of the mission say that the necessary conditions have been created for the country’s district and precinct electoral commissions and that citizens are being informed through print media, radio and television channels about the election campaign. The round-the-clock functioning of a trust line and an e-mail at the Central Electoral Commission from 1 November this year for individuals and corporate bodies to contact it if necessary was stated especially.

These observers emphasized that for the first time in Uzbekistan’s electoral practice a programme of events for raising the law culture of voters had been approved by the Central Electoral Commission and adopted. For these purposes, seminars and round-table conversations are being conducted with the participation of representatives of civil society institutions.

The Central Electoral Commission is effectively using the potential of media to ensure the openness and transparency of the electoral process, members of the CIS mission said. They asserted that media of Uzbekistan were providing equal conditions in terms of duration and volume for coverage of the candidates’ electoral campaigning in news and other informational programmes.

The observer mission of the CIS has been monitoring the preparation and conduct of the elections since 17 November. The head of the mission that includes 10 long-term and about 60 short-term observers is the chairman of the Executive Committee of the CIS, Sergey Lebedev.

As part of election monitoring, long-term observes from the CIS familiarized themselves with the work of district and precinct electoral commissions and visited 104 electoral precincts in various regions of the country. Moreover, members of the observer mission are monitoring the process of early voting, which began on 24 November and is to continue until 2 December.

It was noted at the briefing that the mission would set forth its final conclusions and evaluations in a final document on results of the monitoring of the elections.

Observers from the CIS answered questions that were of interest to journalists.

UzA