CEC of Uzbekistan Admits All Five Parties to Participate in Parliamentary Election

On 21 August, the Central Election Commission adopted a resolution on the admission of all five political parties in Uzbekistan to participate in the election of deputies to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis.

Thus, the Movement of Entrepreneurs and Businesspeople - the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, the Ecological Party of Uzbekistan, the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan and the Adolat(Justice) Social Democratic Party are participating in the election campaign.

The parties are listed in the order in which their documents are received by the CEC - according to Article 31 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan - in the same sequence they will be listed on the ballot papers, the commission's press service reported.

The CEC set up expert groups from specialists of the Republican Center of Forensic Expertise named after Kh. Sulaymonova under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan, experts of the Main Expert and Criminalistics Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan and its subordinate departments, professors and teachers of the Tashkent State University of Law, and representatives of civil society institutions to verify the signature sheets. A total of 33 people took part in the work and checked the accuracy of the submitted signature sheets in accordance with the electoral legislation. Each political party managed to collect more than 40,000 valid signatures.

Presidential and parliamentary candidates in Uzbekistan can only be nominated by registered political parties.

The election will be held in Uzbekistan on 27 October - for the first time under a mixed system. Parties may nominate 75 candidates in single-mandate districts, i.e. one in each district, and 75 to 100 candidates on a party list. Candidates on the list may be members of the political party or non-party members. The number of women among the candidates must be at least 40 per cent.