Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nov.20
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has decided to send a limited observation mission for the parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan.
The decision was taken after the visit of the mission on needs assessment, which took place in Uzbekistan on October 28-30. The mission report was made public Nov.20 on its website.
The mission was in Uzbekistan in order to assess the pre-election environment and the preparations for the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (lower house of the Uzbek parliament), which will be held on December 21.
The experts met with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Election Commission, Parliament, political parties, media, civil society and international organizations, according to the report.
On the results of the visit and given a formal invitation of Uzbek CEC, experts recommended to send a limited observation mission for the election observation to assess their compliance with the OSCE commitments, as well as other international commitments and national legislation.
The report of the mission said that since the last parliamentary elections in 2009, the electoral law and the constitution of the country underwent serious changes. In particular, the candidature of the Prime Minister is now pushed by the party with the largest number of seats (or several parties that won the biggest equal number of seats).
In addition, the constitution establishes the basis for the organization of activity, functioning and status of the CEC as an independent constitutional body, which is formed by the parliament.
"The amendments made to the electoral law in December 2012, reflect the recommendations of the OSCE ODIHR (clarification of the early voting process, creating the possibility of voting in places of detention, and others)," said the statement.
OSCE sent limited observation missions to Uzbekistan for the parliamentary election of 2004 and 2007 presidential election, as well as an assessment mission to the parliamentary election of 2009. Complete observation missions for the election were not sent to the country.
It was earlier reported that the four Uzbek political parties admitted to the election - Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party (UzLiDeP), People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDPU), the Milly Tiklanish Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (National Revival), the Adolat Social Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (Justice) each nominated 135 (according to the number of electoral districts) deputy candidates.
The bicameral parliament in Uzbekistan for the first time was formed in 2005. The Legislative Chamber permanently employs 150 deputies elected in December 2009 from four political parties and the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan for a period of five years.
The upper house - the Senate employs 100 senators elected in equal numbers - six senators from the Karakalpakstan Republic, regions and from the city of Tashkent. In addition, 16 members of the Senate are appointed by the Uzbekistan president and are selected from the most distinguished citizens of the country.