New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) Chief Election Commissioner of India Anup Chandra Pandey is leading a team of three-member delegation to Uzbekistan to observe and conduct of early Presidential Elections to be held on Sunday, the poll panel said on Saturday.
The Election Commission of India in a statement said: “On the invitation of the Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan, Pandey is leading a three-member delegation to Uzbekistan to observe the conduct of early Presidential elections to be held tomorrow.”
It said that four candidates including the incumbent President are in the election fray.
“This election is being held under the framework of new constitution which was adopted in Uzbekistan after the recent Referendum held in April this year, and is being keenly watched by the international community,” the poll panel said.
It said that earlier, Pandey and the Chairman, CEC of Uzbekistan held a meeting on electoral cooperation on July 6.
Pandey spoke about the recent conduct of elections in India and various avenues for further strengthening electoral ties between the two countries through signing of MoU on electoral cooperation, training and capacity building programs which ECI would be happy to organize for Uzbekistan election officials, the Commission said.
It also said that delegates from Uzbekistan have been avidly participating in ECI’s International Election Visitors Programmes (IEVP) organized during elections and officials from Uzbekistan have been attending training programs at ECI under the ITEC program.
The poll panel pointed out that under the Uzbekistan laws, the President is elected for a seven-year term from a single nationwide constituency.
“The election administration follows a three-tier structure comprising the Central Election Commission, 14 District Election Commissions and 10,760 Precinct Election Commissions,” it said.
It also said that Uzbekistan has an electorate of about 20 million. Each polling station caters to a maximum of 3000 voters.
Over 22 million eligible voters are registered to vote in the elections. With over 10,000 polling stations in the country and 55 abroad opened for the citizens of Uzbekistan residing in foreign countries, the exercise is set to become a landmark in that country’s history.
The Indian delegation, led by Election Commissioner Pandey and comprising Deputy Election Commissioners Hirdesh Kumar and RK Gupta also visited the 7th and 14th District Election Commissions to obtain an overview of the electoral administration, procedures and initiatives of the CEC of Uzbekistan.
Pandey during his visit is also slated to interact with the representatives of Non-Resident Indian community based in Tashkent on Indian Elections.