Tashkent, Dec 07 On a invitation from Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan 7 member team from India visited Uzbekistan to oversee the Presidential Elections as International Observers. The members were from different streams like media, academics, Business etc.
Each observer had a choice to visit as many regions it can and mostly the commonly visited places were the popular tourist destination like Samarkand & Bukhara.
Observers were assisted by Interpreter with a Expert who was responsible for organising the entire visit. The overall impressions of the Foreign Media and delegates suggested that the elections were held in the spirit of openness and transparency.
As compared to the previously held Parliamentary and Presidential Elections this time it was even better professionally organised in terms of arrangements.
The whole arrangement done by the Central Election Commission were ably assisted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which the support of other ministries.This multimedia platform was created by the National Association of Electronic Mass Media (NAEMM) of Uzbekistan with technical assistance of the Ministry of Development of Information Technologies and Communications.
“The multimedia platform brings together advanced technologies and solutions: more than 80 PCs with high-speed internet connection, Wi-Fi access, and an online connection with the press center of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Uzbekistan,” Firdavs Abdukhalikov, head of the Press Club, chairman of the Board of the NAEMM, said.
Over 1,300 journalists, including more than 300 foreign journalists, were accredited to cover the presidential election in Uzbekistan, according to the CEC
In the previous elections Islam Karimov enjoyed a big support of the Uzbek population and he constantly gained an overwhelming majority of votes in all the elections. In the last election in 2015, Karimov gathered over 90 percent of votes, which would allow him to rule the country until 2021
This time there were four presidential candidates – acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party Hotamzhon Ketmonov, Nariman Umarov from “Adolat” Party and Sarvar Otamuratov from “Milly Tiklanish” Party.
Chairman of Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov while announcing the elections results at the Press Center said “Mirziyoyev is winning the elections with 88.61% of the vote.”
More than 17.9 million Uzbeks voted — an 87.3 percent turnout — and more than 15.9 million cast their ballots to make the interim president official. According to the Central Election Commission.
The most striking features of this elections were the arrangement for mother who came with their kinders. In all the polling booths a special room was created to look after the kids and specially trained ladies were kept to look after the small children till their mother casted her vote at the polling center.
Special rooms equipped with doctors and medicines were also part of the arrangement in all the polling centers.
One of the most important decisions take by the Central Elections Commission was to allow to cast there vote for persons who were lodged in the jails.
Mirziyoyev took 88.61 percent of the vote. For those that are counting, that’s 1.51 percent more than Islam Karimov when he was first elected president of Uzbekistan in 1991.
In accordance with the country’s legislation, as many as 14 electoral districts were established, the district and precinct election commissions were formed, and 9,381 polling stations were created, including 44 polling stations under offices of Uzbekistan in 36 countries. Precinct election commissions compiled the full lists of voters, which included 21.4 million citizens.
The polling stations in Uzbekistan are provided with everything necessary, with the means of communication, computers and office equipment, legal literature. Cabins for secret voting have been equipped in the designated areas, ballot boxes installed.
To date, all the voters have been notified by the precinct election commissions of Uzbekistan about the time and the place of voting. Voters were given every opportunity to familiarize themselves with the election programs, biographies of the Uzbek presidential candidates through the mass media outlets or directly at the pre-election meetings of the candidates with the voters.
In accordance with the Uzbek legislation, 87,500 voters, who are unable to be present at their place of residence on the election day, used their right of early voting, which began November 24 and ended at 18:00 (GMT + 5 hours) Dec. 2.
More than 80,000 local observers from public organizations, political parties, as well as 600 international ones from the OSCE ODIHR, CIS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Association of World Election Bodies, as well as from a number of countries, will be monitoring the presidential election in Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is one of the key countries in the region. The country is a home to over 30 million people – almost the same number as in the other four countries of the region taken together.
Uzbek economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the country ranks the second in the region after Kazakhstan in terms of GDP volume. Uzbekistan ranks 11th in extraction of natural gas, 6th in cotton production and 9th in gold production in the world.
Uzbekistan is also a large producer of high-quality fruits and vegetables. The country not only meets domestic needs, but also annually sends hundreds of thousands of tons of fruits and vegetables for export.
Uzbekistan has the largest car plant in the region, capable of producing up to 250,000 popular Korean car brands a year, which are in high demand in the local and neighboring markets.
Finally, Uzbekistan has the largest and efficient army in Central Asia, which is important due to the country’s proximity to Afghanistan and growing terrorist threats in the world and the region.
After the results world leaders congratulated new elected President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Among the prominient were the the Russian President Putin. According to Kremlin press service “Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Shavkat Mirziyoyev on his election of Uzbekistan’s president and invited him to pay an official visit to Russia.”