The issue of registration of authorized representatives of political parties was considered at the regular meeting of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan on September 24.
The issue of registration of authorized representatives of political parties was considered at the regular meeting of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan on September 24.

It is known that according to Article 34 of the Election Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, a political party that has nominated candidates for deputy has the right to appoint its authorized representative to participate in the meetings of the election commission, in the handing over of documents, in checking that the signature sheets are filled in correctly, and in counting the votes at the polling station.

In accordance with the regulation on the authorized representative of the political party, approved by the decision of the Central Election Commission No. 935 of September 11, 2019 - the head of the higher body of the political party appoints his authorized representative within five days from the day of the official announcement of the start of the election campaign, and for his registration, the Central Election Commission submits relevant documents to the commission.

On September 20, 2019, the Central Election Commission announced the start of the election campaign for the election of deputies of the legislative chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan and deputies of local councils.

In this regard, the leaders of five political parties operating in the political field of our country appointed their authorized representatives, applied to the CEC for their registration and submitted relevant documents.

CEC Entrepreneurs and businessmen's movement - considering the documents related to the authorized representatives recommended by the leaders of the liberal-democratic party of Uzbekistan, the social-democratic party of Uzbekistan "Adolat", the democratic party of Uzbekistan "National Revival", the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan and the Ecological Party of Uzbekistan, listed the authorized representatives made a decision to receive and give them a certificate (mandate) of the prescribed form.

According to the Election Code, a political party can nominate candidates for deputy only if it collects the signatures of at least 40,000 voters supporting its participation in the election, and the forms of signatures are to be issued by the Central Election Commission after the announcement of the start of the election campaign.

Based on the above, the CEC handed over to the authorized representatives of the political parties certificates of their registration and signature sheets of the specified model for collecting the signatures of the voters.

Activists of political parties started work. How does this process work?

It is important to collect signatures from political parties and check that the signature sheets are filled in correctly to participate in the election of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

According to the regulation on the authorized representative of the political party, political parties:

- In order to collect signatures supporting the participation of a political party in the election of the Legislative Chamber, each political party will be given signature forms that will allow them to collect forty-eight thousand signatures, taking into account the fact that signature sheets are broken and incomplete, and in order to create an additional opportunity for political parties, and at the request of political parties according to which additional signature sheet forms can be issued for collecting signatures;

- to organize the collection of signatures, responsible persons may be appointed from among the members of the district and city councils and executive committees of political parties or the employees of the office of the district and city organizations of the parties, as well as the leaders of the primary organizations of the political parties;

- that voters can collect signatures at work, service, study, place of residence, at pre-election events, as well as in other places where campaigning and signature collection are not prohibited by law;

- It is determined that any form of coercion and manipulation of voters by the person collecting signatures shall be the cause of liability established by law.

According to the draft regulation, no more than forty-four thousand, i.e. the necessary forty thousand and a maximum of 10 percent additional signatures will be provided by political parties for the CEC to verify that the signature sheets are filled in correctly. If more than forty-four thousand signatures are collected by the political parties, the remaining signature sheets will be kept as a reserve in the political party.

The CEC will verify that the signature sheets submitted by the political parties are filled in correctly within five days, and the political parties will be informed in advance about the time and place of the verification.

Authorized representatives of political parties participate in the process of verification by the Central Election Commission of whether the signature sheets are filled in correctly.

CEC may form an expert group to verify that the signature forms are filled in correctly. The expert group includes correspondence experts, specialists of internal affairs bodies, judicial bodies, as well as lawyers

representatives of Russian society institutions are involved.

The members of the expert team examine each signature sheet, paying attention to the fact that the signature sheet is filled correctly, corrections are allowed, there are deleted corrections, it is filled by different persons, there are similar signatures, there are confirmed corrections.

Signature sheets that are found to be defective or suspicious during visual inspection are sorted for more thorough inspection, including special tools.

Signatures are considered invalid in the following cases:

- Signatures collected before the announcement of the beginning of the election campaign, signatures placed without entering information about the voter on the signature sheet by the voter himself or the person responsible for collecting voters' signatures, signatures placed by persons who do not have the right to vote, any of the information that should be indicated on the signature sheet, including the date signatures placed without showing, signatures placed on behalf of another person, signatures placed on signature sheets other than signature sheets issued by the CEC, voter's signature and information about it, signatures entered with pencils and other writing tools, signatures placed with corrections to the information that should be indicated on the signature sheet, provided that these amendments are not confirmed with an additional signature by the voter or persons confirming the signature sheet, the signatures are considered invalid.

If, as a result of checking more than a quarter of the signature sheets selected by the CEC, it is found that the signature sheets were drawn up in violation of the law, these signature sheets will be returned to the authorized representative of the political party and he will be given two days to eliminate the deficiencies.

If the deficiencies in the signature sheets are not eliminated by the political parties within two days, or if additional signature sheets are not submitted, the signature sheets deemed valid will be taken into account.

Deficiencies are eliminated (additionally collected) and signature sheets submitted to the CEC are fully checked and found to be valid. If the number of signatures of supporting voters is less than the specified minimum number, the CEC will deny the political party the right to participate in the election.

Upon completion of the investigation, the expert group for each political party that submitted the signature forms in favor of the political party will draw up a conclusion on the results of the verification of the correct filling of the signature forms. A copy of the summary is given to the authorized representative of the political party. The conclusions of the expert group serve as the basis for the adoption of a relevant decision by the CEC.

Based on the conclusion of the expert group, the CEC shall make a decision to allow the political party to participate in the election of the Legislative Chamber or to deny the right to participate in the election of the Legislative Chamber due to the fact that the documents submitted by the political party do not meet the legal requirements.

In conclusion, the correct filling of signature forms provided by a political party is important in ensuring that this political party participates in the election.

Bahadirjon YUNUSOV,

Republic of Uzbekistan

Member of the Central Election Commission.