Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Oct. 22
By Demir Azizov– Trend:
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR) will send a full observation mission for the presidential election to Uzbekistan, said the ODIHR report on the pre-election environment and the preparations for the presidential election of Uzbekistan.
“A full-fledged observer mission is being sent to Uzbekistan for the first time, taking into account the country's readiness to hold an important political event in an opened and transparent manner in accordance with generally accepted international electoral standards,” the report reads.
It is proposed to include a main group, 28 long-term observers, as well as 250 short-term observers, who will carry out systematic observation at the Uzbek polling stations on the election day, into the observation mission for the election in Uzbekistan, according to the report.
Earlier it was reported that experts of the needs assessment mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights headed by Alexander Shlyk (Belarus) and OSCE/ODIHR Election Advisor Ulvi Akhundlu (Azerbaijan) had a meeting in Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission October 11-14, 2016.
The meeting was held in connection with the upcoming presidential election in Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan will hold an early presidential election on Dec. 4. The election will be held in accordance with the country’s constitution due to the death of President Islam Karimov.
The needs assessment mission (NAM) experts said that the Uzbek CEC consistently improves law enforcement practice in order to guarantee the citizens' electoral rights.
The OSCE/ODIHR praised the recent changes made to the electoral legislation of Uzbekistan, in particular the reduction of the number of signatures to be collected by political parties in support of a presidential candidate from 5 to 1 percent.
The NAM experts praised the CEC online training seminars for officials of district election commissions, highlighting the novelty of the format, as well as the importance of quality training for election commissions’ members and voters themselves for the upcoming election.