By Dr Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan

It seems that all false, fake, and fabricated propaganda of the Western mass media and electoral regulatory bodies is mitigated with the start of voting in the Republic of Uzbekistan today. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, has predicted "strong competition" in today's ballot. Voting has started. According to the Uzbekistan Chief Election Commission, the total number of voters is 19,826,858, and polling stations are 10717 across the country.

Today's elections are the first under a new constitution that was passed by referendum last year, and the first since President Mirziyoev secured a new presidential term in July 2023.

Hopefully, today's vote will also feature the first elections to the parliament of Karakalpakstan, a nominally autonomous republic inside Uzbekistan which will have great significance and socio-economic multiplier effects in the days to come.

According to Western media, think tanks, organizations, and regulatory bodies, all the political parties competing in today’s elections are so-called pocket parties which have no substance and are untrue because all parties are totally different in their political ideology, economic objectives, social development goals, and last but not least other important issues of human survival comprising of social justice, rule of the law, openness, transparency, women empowerment and above all protection of basic human rights in the country. Thus western media objections are senseless and have certain political hypes.

On the other hand, huge queues outside of the polling stations across the country, vividly reflect a new chapter in the country's evolving politicization and democratization. Definitely, it is for change, economic stability & sustainability, political maturity, diversity, further strengthening of opposition gearing towards, further transparency, economic reform, judicial independence, and environmental protection in the country. Moreover, it is indeed a real gigantic step towards further empowerment of women raising their quota from 30 percent to 40 percent.

The electoral euphoria maintains that the five political parties competing in today's vote are actively participating for real change, progress, prosperity, peace and achieving the dreams of a qualitative life in the days to come.
The holding of political rallies, corner meetings, activation of social media, equal media time to all the political parties, freedom of political association and last but not least, electoral advertisement through posters and billboards of candidates are plenty visible confirming active electioneering, free will of the candidates, political parties and political decency in the country inching towards the modern democracy’s domain.

It is penitent to mention that the main change introduced under the 2023 constitutional reform is a switch to a mixed election system, in which only half of the 150 deputies are elected by voting for political parties. The other 75 candidates will be elected individually, although all of them have also been nominated by Uzbekistan's five registered parties.

In today’s parliamentary elections, local elections are also taking place across the country, Uzbekistan's two-tier, national legislature will be elected under a newly introduced mixed system that combines majoritarian, district-level races, and proportional representation for political parties.

The Western media's high claims of passive voting, noninvolvement of the general masses, nonexistence of political opposition (five political parties contesting the parliamentary elections 2024), fears of proxy voting and so-called electoral mismanagement dashed to the ground because of massive participation of the common people supporting their own political parties and candidates consolidating the true spirit of politicization and democratization in the country.

It is a good omen that the recent modifications to the Constitution and the Election Code include a quota introduced to the national legal framework. The quota specifies that 40 percent of candidates running on party lists for the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis must be women. It also requires the inclusion of at least two women out of every five candidates on the closed-party list. Furthermore, 40 percent of candidates running for majoritarian elections must be women.

Moreover, in today's elections, women constitute 44.74 percent of candidates running for the parliamentary elections and 42.45 percent of those running for local council seats. The 40 percent quota applicable for parliamentary and local elections is an increase from 30 percent under the previous legislation which has further strengthened the democratic stature and status of the Republic of Uzbekistan, consolidating spirits of gender equality, ethnic diversity, multiculturalism, and rule of law in the country.

Today’s elections are creating history because of the facility of E-Voting devices at the selected polling stations. Thirty-seven e-voting devices have been installed in 10 polling stations in Tashkent. At polling stations where electronic voting is being tested, voters have the right to independently choose traditional (paper) or electronic voting. Thus it is another step towards complete electoral openness, transparency, and fair & free elections in the country.

Critical analysis reveals that in Part 2 of Article 67 of the Electoral Code of Uzbekistan seventy-five deputies of the Legislative Chamber are being elected in a single-mandate electoral district, seventy-five on the basis of the party list in proportion to the number of votes cast for political parties in a single electoral district. Usually, under such systems, on election day, the voter is given a separate ballot in which he votes specifically for the candidate, and a separate ballot in which he votes for the party.

Interestingly, according to Article 961 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, a political party receives a parliamentary mandate only if it receives seven percent of the votes of voters who took part in the voting in a single electoral district which seems to be a good omen for the political diversity and maturity in the country.

In summary, President Mirziyoyev has introduced numerous structural socio-economic and political reforms aimed at liberalising the economy, strengthening the rule of law, and opening the political system. These efforts were accelerated with the adoption of a new constitution in 2023, which expanded parliamentary powers and introduced a mixed electoral system combining majoritarian and proportional voting.

Hopefully, today’s parliamentary elections will be the beginning of a new chapter in the national and political history of Uzbekistan, empowering the people, women, and minorities, consolidating modern concepts of economic self-reliance and financial decentralization because of the gross-rooted elections of today.

Today’s elections are people’s centric, gearing towards socio-economic transformation, green revolution, structural transparency, judicial openness, rule of the law, establishing the real supremacy of the political parties contesting the electoral battle through ballot not bullet upholding unique model of good governance, people’s centric democratic model of Uzbekistan different but not disagree with the modern democracy.

About the Author: Dr Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan is the President of the Center for Pak-China Corridor of Knowledge and Executive Director of the Center for South Asia & International Studies (CSAIS), Islamabad
He is also a regional expert on Uzbekistan, China, CPEC, and BRI.