In our country, consistent and systematic work aimed at preparing for and holding the presidential election of the Republic of Uzbekistan has entered a new stage. The composition of the members of the precinct election commissions was approved by the district election commissions and the work began.

Area of responsibility

It has long been known that the conduct of the election directly depends on many aspects, especially the activity of the precinct election commission. It goes without saying that the precinct election commission is the most responsible place where the fate of the election is decided. Because, first of all, voters, observers and representatives of the mass media - everyone evaluates the election based on the activity of the polling station. Voters vote here, ballots are counted. This is where the effects of the election laws come to light, and where the existing problems are reflected.

That is why specialists working at the lowest level of the election commission system should be familiar with the national election legislation and international election standards. They should also be well aware of the social and political processes taking place in our country, and should have thoroughly mastered the use of information technologies.

In order for voters to receive the necessary information and vote freely, it is necessary to create all the conditions strictly defined by the election legislation at the polling stations.

It is clear that achieving such high demands will not happen by itself. In cooperation with the relevant state and public organizations to prepare for the election and conduct it at the level of democratic requirements according to the program of main activities for the preparation of the election of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan approved by the decision of the Central Election Commission on April 14, 2021 , taking into account the conditions caused by the pandemic, extensive work has been done.

Preparation

It is no coincidence that the Central Election Commission started the preparations for the presidential election early and precisely by approving the concept of organizing training of the members of the Election Commissions. In order to ensure timely and high-quality performance of the tasks specified in this document, adopted on April 27 of this year, mutual cooperation signed between the Central Election Commission and the Academy of State Administration, Tashkent State Law University, Academy of the General Prosecutor's Office, Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs it is important to emphasize that the agreement on

This agreement aims to further increase the knowledge and practical skills of all the organizers of the election process regarding the electoral legislation and practice in order to organize the upcoming election and pre-election processes in accordance with the law, at a high level, to strengthen the trust of citizens in the current electoral institutions, as well as a wide-scale made it possible to establish effective cooperation in order to increase the sense of belonging to democratic reforms.

On April 28 of this year, a multi-level seminar on improving the qualifications of candidates for election commissions and other organizers of the election process at the Academy of Public Administration began with the training of republican trainers and continued systematically throughout the country.

On September 15, the final-third stage of the seminar-training was completed.

After the approval of the composition of the members of precinct election commissions, more than 32,000 precinct election commission chairmen, deputy chairmen and secretaries, who have been trained in three stages, will share the knowledge and skills acquired in seminars and trainings with more than 110,000 other members of the commissions. he taught them directly in the process of work at their polling stations. The most effective news of this year's seminar-trainings was that the knowledge gained by the trainees was monitored and analyzed in these trainings under the direct methodological guidance of the regional trainers, and the identified deficiencies were consistently eliminated. It was specially recognized by the national and international analyst community.

It is worth noting that video lessons, video clips and infographic products, training manuals and brochures prepared on the topics included in the training program, developed on the basis of the recommendations of leading national and international experts, improve the skills and abilities of election organizers. became important.

Training for listeners is organized in an interactive way, such as organizing early voting, equipping polling stations, voting on election day, following the principle of "One voter - one vote", working with observers, calculating election results, etc. served to strengthen his theoretical knowledge in the fields in practical training.

Take the original

on the subject of elections, a person who wants to learn can easily find the code, law, decision, regulation, instruction and program, scientific and public articles, interviews, manuals and brochures, notes, even the necessary phone numbers and maps. Add to this list, as noted, video lessons, videos, infographics, photos, TV and film clips, reports, interviews, discussions, debates. If you want - online, if not - offline. A year - twelve months, every day, every hour, no matter where you are in the world - at your fingertips.

To do this, visit the official website of the Central Election Commission or the "Saylov2021" portal, the mobile application of the same name, and its pages on social networks. They contain thousands of propaganda and propaganda materials in Uzbek, Karakalpak and Russian languages. And the collection is being regularly replenished and enriched.

If you have a question about the election, you can call the free phone number "1200" and get a qualified answer to any question you may have. Your application will be answered in detail by mature legal scholars, experts and experienced election practitioners.

In Uzbekistan, not a single appeal and question about the presidential election will remain unanswered!

Human value

It is worth noting separately that in the history of Uzbekistan, there has never been as much attention paid to ensuring citizens' right to vote, promoting, learning and teaching national election legislation and international election standards as today. conditions and favorable opportunities have not been created.

Such large-scale work, which is one of the main directions of reforms in the national electoral system, is of great importance in achieving the noble goals of building the foundations of the third Renaissance in our country.

If we analyze the quality indicators of the members working in the more than ten thousand seven hundred precinct election commissions formed for the election of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, it is not only in the national election system, but also in the whole country that is being carried out boldly and consistently. the high results of wide-ranging democratic reforms are evident.

First of all, this can be seen in the fact that there are significantly more women in the ranks of precinct election commissions, which have a total of 142,044 members than in the previous elections. For example, 54,361 women worked in polling stations during the last parliamentary election two years ago, and there are almost 12,000 more women in this year's presidential election. 3,588 chairmen, 3,508 deputy chairmen, and 4,686 secretaries of precinct election commissions are women.

This is the result of constant and systematic attention paid to ensuring gender equality and women's rights in practice, increasing the activity and legal culture of women in social and political life. At the moment, these figures are another practical example of the law "On Guarantees of Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men" adopted in our country on September 2, 2019, and of the high spirituality characteristic of a society where human value is the priority. is closed. After all, it is an age-old fact that only in a society of highly spiritual people, women will receive attention and respect, and the country will develop.

Strengthening of the legal framework

The Election Code adopted on June 25, 2019, taking into account the rich experience gained in the national election legislation and practice formed during the years of independence, as well as the generally recognized international election standards, was also highly evaluated by international experts. A number of other democratic changes and additions have been made to the electoral law in recent years.

On February 8 of this year, the law "On amendments and additions to some legislative documents of the Republic of Uzbekistan in connection with the improvement of the electoral legislation" is one of them. According to the law, some norms related to the activity of precinct election commissions were further strengthened.

According to the new law, one of the changes made to the Election Code was expressed in Article 23. It is known that the precinct election commission is formed by the district election commission at least forty days before the election, consisting of five to nineteen members, including the chairman, deputy chairman and secretary.

According to Article 25 of the Code, more than half of the members of the precinct election commission could not be recommended from one organization.

However, in institutions such as hospitals, rest houses, military units, and diplomatic missions of our country abroad, it is clear that it is difficult to organize members of the polling station in such an order, based on the requirements of their strict internal rules.

According to the new law, the third part of this article of the Election Code was stated as follows: "Members of the precinct election commission

no more than half of them can be recommended from one organization, except for precinct elections organized at diplomatic and other representative offices of the Republic of Uzbekistan in foreign countries, military units, sanatoriums and rest homes, other inpatient treatment facilities, places of detention and deprivation of liberty excluding commissions".

The procedure of inclusion of citizens of Uzbekistan residing in foreign countries in the voter list, regardless of whether they are in the consular account of diplomatic missions or not, voting through mobile boxes in the places where our voters-compatriots live or work crowdedly in foreign countries the legal basis of giving has been strengthened.

Based on this, the personal structure of the fifty-four precinct election commissions in 37 countries, which were formed by the 14th Tashkent city district election commission in the presence of the diplomatic and other representative offices of the Republic of Uzbekistan in foreign countries, was approved.

Exclusion of the duty of election commissions to organize meetings of candidates with voters, prohibition of use of state resources during pre-election campaign, and in order to prevent unjustified prolongation of election results announcement period, the period of appeal against the decisions of election commissions is from 10 days to 5 days. There is no doubt that the introduction of new norms regarding the reduction of elections will serve to conduct elections based on the principles of openness, transparency and independence.

Precinct election commissions, which perform their activities based on the principles of legality, collegiality, transparency and fairness, are entrusted with responsible tasks.

Based on the regulation on the procedure of the precinct election commissions conducting the election of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan approved by the decision of the Central Election Commission on April 14, 2021, among other things, these commissions will compile a list of voters by polling station; acquaints voters with the list of voters, accepts and considers applications for errors and inaccuracies in the list, and resolves the issue of making relevant changes to the list ; accepts ballot papers in closed envelopes from voters who did not have the opportunity to be at their place of residence and participate in voting on the election day, and who voted ahead of time; informs the population about the election day and voting place; ensures that the building is prepared with secret voting booths or rooms, ballot boxes, as well as other equipment; organizes voting at the precinct on election day; at the request of voters who could not come to the polling station due to their health or other reasons, organize voting in their place; counts votes; considers appeals of voters and other participants of the election process and makes decisions on them.

An acknowledged fact

The number of members of the district and precinct election commissions formed this year is attracting the attention of analysts that there are more representatives of the new generation, especially young specialists in information technologies than ever before.

The reason for this is known. The information system for managing the election process and the unified electronic list of voters were introduced to the national election system throughout our country in the 2019 elections.

Now, based on the experience gained in the previous elections, this system is being further improved at the level of the requirements of the time.

So far, more than 21 million voters have been included in the single electronic register. "Are you on the list of voters?" on the website of the Central Election Commission. service started.

During the last parliamentary election, surveillance cameras were installed in 60 polling stations across the country, and the voting process in them was shown in real time in the Press Center, on the official website of the Central Election Commission, and on "Uzbekistan24" TV channel. There were no violations of the law in these polling stations. According to the data, during the presidential election on October 24, the number of polling stations where surveillance cameras will be installed across the country will more than triple.

Many more such news related to the activity of precinct election commissions can be cited.

National and foreign experts on international relations and human rights, talking about the reforms implemented in Uzbekistan in recent years, agree on one issue: "in a short period of time, the people and government of Uzbekistan have taken a pragmatic and truly democratic path." passed, the high fruits of this path international community

already recognized by".

The people of our country know very well that this high international recognition is based on hard work, determination and courage. There is no doubt that our people, who appreciate hard work and courage, the peace and prosperity established in our country, will actively participate in the presidential election and vote for the most worthy candidate. This is also shown by the data of the "Social Opinion" center: 88.2 percent of the population of Uzbekistan, who live with complete confidence in the future, are ready to participate in the upcoming presidential election.

This is a sign that the election will be held in an atmosphere of tolerance and nobility, kindness, respect, political and legal culture, in accordance with our ancient traditions.

Kulman Ochilov,

Republic of Uzbekistan

Central Election Commission

Chairman's adviser

"New Uzbekistan" newspaper, September 21, 2021