KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 (Bernama-NNN) — The upcoming Uzbekistan presidential elections is one of the most important socio-political events this year which is of key importance for further sustainable development of the country and the entire Central Asian region as a whole, in the medium and long term.
In recent years, within the framework of building a democratic, open and competitive New Uzbekistan, huge work has been carried out in ensuring the fundamental rights of citizens to vote and to be elected to representative bodies.
“Consistent measures have been taken to strengthen the legal basis for free and fair elections held on the basis of universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot openly and publicly.
“At the same time, the electoral legislation of Uzbekistan is being dynamically improved on the basis of national practical experience accumulated during periodically organised elections, as well as taking into account international standards,” said the Uzbekistan embassy in Malaysia in a statement to Bernama.
According to the statement, three steps of development of the electoral legislation of New Uzbekistan was taken, including choosing the path of codification of electoral legislation.
It said in 2019, the Electoral Code was adopted, replacing five previously disparate electoral laws that were in force.
“The Electoral Code was developed with the participation of all political forces and parties of the country, and civil society institutions, on the basis of a nationwide discussion,” it added.
The second step will be ensuring the independence of activities of election commissions at all levels, namely creating more favourable legal conditions for political parties for campaigning, and organising all-party election events, including mass ones, for conducting an election campaign.
The third step will be the formation of legal conditions for fair elections.
“The third step also envisages a number of other novelties that eliminate the technical and organisational issues identified during the previous elections.
“In general, they serve to democratise electoral legislation and practice, taking into account the generally recognised international principles of holding fair and truly democratic elections,” said the statement.
— BERNAMA-NNN
