Preparation for Uzbek presidential election held in line with laws, CIS observers say

Preparation for the presidential election in Uzbekistan is being held in accordance with the laws, reads an interim report by a CIS observer mission.

The mission’s report covered the observation over the preparation and holding of presidential election in Uzbekistan, to be held March 29.

The report, posted on the CIS Executive Committee’s website, said the observers had meetings at Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission (CEC), the Foreign Ministry, the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General’s Office and exchanged views on the election campaign there.

The CIS observer mission also met with representatives of the campaign headquarters of the political parties that have nominated presidential candidates.

These parties are the Movement of Entrepreneurs and Businessmen - Liberal Democratic Party (UzLiDeP), the People’s Democratic Party, the Democratic Party Milly Tiklanish (National Revival) and the Social Democratic Party Adolat (Justice).

During the monitoring, the CIS long-term observers got familiar with the work of district and precinct election commissions in all regions of Uzbekistan. The mission visited over 120 precinct election commissions.

“The Central Election Commission is working in an open and transparent manner,” said the report. “Its meetings are held with the participation of international observers, representatives of political parties and the media. CEC leverages the potential of the media to ensure transparency and openness of the electoral process.”

The report said that the leaders of the pre-election staffs of candidates at the meetings with supervisors had no complaints for the media on coverage of the campaign.

The report presents information of the CEC that some 90,000 people were attracted to the work in district election commissions.

In general, some 14 district and 9,058 precinct election commissions, including 44 ones abroad were established within the legal deadlines.

The CIS mission will present its final conclusions and evaluation at the end of the observation.

The CIS observation mission monitors the preparation and holding of election at the invitation of the Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan starting from March 12.

Some 72 observers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the CIS Executive Committee have been accredited as part of a mission.

The presidential election in Uzbekistan will be held on March 29, 2015. The pre-election campaign started on December 26, 2014.

The presidential candidates are: incumbent President Islam Karimov from the Liberal Democratic Party, the member of the parliamentary faction, chairman of the committee for democratic institutions, NGOs and citizens’ self-government bodies, Akmal Saidov - from the National Democratic Party Milly Tiklanish; the chairman of the Central Council of the People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDPU) Hotamzhon Ketmonov - from the PDPU, the chairman of the executive committee of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Adolat, Narimon Umarov - from SDP.

/By Trend/