Interview with the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Mirzo Ulug'bek ABDUSALOMOV, a distinguished lawyer in Uzbekistan.
- Mirzo Ulugbek Elchiyevich! First of all, we are grateful to you for taking the time to talk at a time when the work of the Central Election Commission is "in full swing"!

- It is true that our work is "boiling" day by day. This is natural. Because the big political event in our country - the campaign for the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and local councils on December 22 of this year - is entering an increasingly exciting phase.

I always try to respond kindly when journalists invite me to talk. Constant communication with representatives of the mass media is the duty and task of not only the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, but also leaders and members of election commissions at all levels. This is one of the important conditions for conducting elections based on open, transparent and universally recognized international democratic principles.

If you have noticed, on the day the Central Election Commission announced the start of the election campaign - September 20 - three events were held at once - a meeting of the Central Election Commission, the opening of the International Press Center and a large-scale press conference. All three of them took place with the active participation of journalists. Many questions were asked. The television broadcast the events of that day live.

- During the previous elections, the area of communication of the Central Election Commission with journalists was called "Press Center". This time the term "international" was added to its name. What is the reason?

- This is, first of all, the fact that our country has opened its heart to the world more widely in recent years, and it is the result of the systematic, consistent, and at the same time, rapid reforms in the field of state and community building. It is related to the fact that our country has boldly stepped into the stage of establishing a democratic state and a just society, openness and transparency are gaining a wider and stronger place in our life, the influence of our country in the world is increasing, and international relations are expanding in all directions.

The International Press Center consists of six groups. These are groups that work with electronic, print, foreign mass media, social networks on the Internet, and coordinate the activities of regional press centers. At the same time, district election commissions holding elections for deputies of the Legislative Chamber also have their own press centers. The most capable and experienced journalists of our country were also involved in them.

- How did the Central Election Commission prepare for the upcoming elections? If you were asked about the different aspects of this year's elections compared to previous ones, how would you answer?

- Elections are an important political event in any democratic country. The formation of state authorities through elections is one of the indicators of the country's constitutional system based on the principles of democracy.

Preparing for and conducting elections is essentially a multi-faceted task. In order to find and implement methods of systematic and effective implementation of this work, the electoral legislation in Uzbekistan is being regularly improved.

The signing of the law on the implementation of the Election Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan by the head of state on June 25, 2019 started a new era in the national election system of our country.

One of the most important differences between the current elections and the previous ones is that the elections are held for the first time based on the new Election Code.

At this point, I must emphasize that election law experts, including foreign and international experts, widely recognize that very important and modern changes have taken place in the Election Code of our country. In their opinion, the Election Code of Uzbekistan creates many new opportunities and conveniences for voters, elected officials, and election organizers.

The code includes more than thirty new norms and rules that serve to conduct democratic, open and transparent elections based on universally recognized international standards and principles. Many applicable restrictions have been removed.

Therefore, these new norms and rules of the electoral legislation should be widely explained to the organizers, first of all, to the leaders and members of the district and precinct election commissions, and to the voters, who will be involved in holding local elections.
Another important innovation - in order to ensure the principle of "one voter - one vote", an information system for managing the election process and a unified electronic list of voters are being introduced into the national election system of Uzbekistan. Training and retraining of personnel for election bodies

works are also being improved at the level of modern requirements.

In connection with the adoption of the Election Code, the Central Election Commission developed and adopted a draft of the program of main activities to prepare for the elections of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, regional, district and city councils of People's Deputies. The work that needs to be carried out in the program was determined step by step, day by day, and its implementation began earlier than ever - from June. Earlier, these works were started after the election campaign. Seminar-training aimed at improving the knowledge and skills of candidates for election commissions at all levels regarding the news of the electoral law, preparing for elections and conducting them, began three months earlier than usual - on August 3.

I must emphasize that this multi-level method of teaching, which expands and improves from top to bottom, gives its high results. About 51,000 candidates for chairpersons, deputy chairpersons and secretaries of election commissions were trained in the two completed stages. The third round of seminar-trainings began on October 3.

- By the way, such a seminar-training was held in Tashkent last week for journalists. A representative of the independent newspaper "Hurriyat" also took part in it. Lectures of prominent scientists and experts on election legislation were heard during the two-day training. It was an interesting and very useful discussion.

- Hearing such confessions from journalists gives us satisfaction, of course. More than 16,000 constituencies and polling stations will be established in this year's elections. At the beginning of the training seminars, 70 national trainers and 748 "district trainers" groups were formed in the regions. About 170,000 members of election commissions will improve their knowledge and skills at seminars and trainings on organizing and holding elections.

The trainings are conducted by well-known scientists, experts and practitioners of the country's election legislation, including leading specialists of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

At the moment, the development and adoption of new normative legal documents - instructions, regulations and statutes on the organization and conduct of elections according to the Election Code - is one of the most important areas of work systematically carried out by the Central Election Commission. Before the start of the election campaign, more than ten documents were adopted in this regard.

- According to the Electoral Code, who can become a deputy, and who does not have the opportunity to use such an honorable right? Who can nominate candidates for deputy and in what order?

- In order to find reliable answers to such questions, which are of interest to many people today, before looking through the Election Code, it would be right to turn to the Constitution of our country, an authoritative document that embodies all our civil rights, obligations and duties.
Article 117 of our General Dictionary states that "Citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan have the right to elect and be elected to representative bodies of state power." Each voter has one vote. The right to vote, equality and freedom to express one's will are guaranteed by law.

In other words, it is the civic duty of each of us to freely express our will by voting in the upcoming elections.
As stated in Article 67 of the Election Code, the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis consists of one hundred and fifty deputies elected for a five-year term. Deputies of the lower house of our parliament are elected on the basis of multi-party constituencies. That is, as stated in Article 37 of the Code, only political parties have the right to nominate candidates for the Legislative Chamber and local councils.

After the announcement of the start of this year's election campaign, there are five such political parties operating in our country - Entrepreneurs and businessmen's movement - Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, Social Democratic Party of Uzbekistan "Adolat", Democratic Party of Uzbekistan "Milliy Tiklishan", People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan and the authorized representatives of the Ecological Party of Uzbekistan were registered by the Central Election Commission in accordance with the procedure established by the law, and they were given the forms of the signature sheets to collect the signatures of the voters.

According to the Electoral Code, each political party must now collect the signatures of at least 40,000 voters supporting its participation in the election. Only then will the political party be able to nominate candidates for deputy.
These days, all the political parties that have been given signatures are local voters

began to collect signatures.

- What if the activists of the political parties "confiscated" the signatures in advance? Will it pass?

- There is no way to "hold" signatures in advance. Because the procedure for collecting signatures is described in detail in the Code. "A political party has the right to collect voters' signatures only after its authorized representative receives a registration certificate. Signatures collected before this date will not be taken into account.
This is the first.

Secondly, as it was noted, signature sheets are given to authorized representatives of political parties only after they are registered by the Central Election Commission.

As for whether the signatures of the voters collected by the political parties are valid, the Central Election Commission will form a group of experts to check whether the signature forms are filled in correctly. Correspondence specialists of internal affairs, justice bodies, as well as representatives of civil society institutions will be involved in the group of experts. Authorized representatives of political parties take part in the verification of signature sheets.

- You said that only political parties have the right to nominate candidates for deputy. So, in order for a citizen to enter the fight for a deputy's mandate, it is necessary to first "grab" a political party. Will not the rights of those who are not members of any sect be limited as a result of this requirement?

- Absolutely! You can find a clear answer to this question from Articles 70 and 91 of the Election Code. In them, it was noted that political parties are authorized to nominate non-party members as candidates for deputies, in addition to their own party members.
At this point, I would like to draw your attention to another issue that is reinforced in these articles. This is related to the right of women to be elected to representative bodies of state power in our country. When political parties nominate their candidates for the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and deputies of local councils, they must strictly comply with this norm. After all, the number of women should be at least thirty percent of the total number of candidates for deputy from a political party.

All this is another indication of how widely recognized democratic principles are reflected in our national election legislation.

- Who can not expect to be a deputy?

- Citizens whose conviction for a serious or extremely serious crime has not been completed or the conviction has not been removed, according to the Election Code; citizens who have not lived in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the last five years before the election day; Military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan, employees of the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the National Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Customs Committee, and other paramilitary units; professional employees of religious organizations and associations are not registered as candidates for the Legislative Chamber.

- How does the Central Election Commission cooperate with the mass media in covering events related to the preparation and holding of the elections?

- Mass media play an important role in conducting elections in accordance with universally recognized democratic principles such as openness, openness and transparency. Therefore, the Central Election Commission always pays special attention to this issue in its activities. They are actively helping to increase the political activity of the population and expand their participation in the political and social life of our country. Also, the mass media play an important role in citizens' reliable exercise of their electoral rights, free expression of their will, and transparency of the activities of election commissions.

For this purpose, the Central Election Commission, the National Broadcasting Company of Uzbekistan, the National News Agency of Uzbekistan -UzA, the Dunyo news agency, the National Association of Electronic Mass Media, the Uzreport news agency and the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, regional, district and city councils of People's Deputies signed bilateral agreements on coverage of the preparations for the elections.

The Central Election Commission has effectively established cooperation with mass media, which play an important role in conveying the details of the election campaign to the population in different languages. In particular, an agreement was reached with the editors-in-chief of Kazakh-language "Nurli Jol", Tajik-language "Ovozi Tajik", and Korean-language "Koryo Sinmun" newspapers to cover the election process.

Consistent coverage of the activities of election commissions at all levels as part of the implementation of agreements, for candidates for deputies and political parties, they

special attention is paid to the creation of wide and equal opportunities by means of media, equal amount of air time and publishing space in order to deliver independent points of view on the important issues of socio-political, socio-economic development of the country to the voters and the public.

In addition to these, representatives of other mass media who are determined to cover the elections, in particular, foreign journalists who are officially working in Uzbekistan, as well as journalists who will visit abroad for a short period of time to cover the election campaign, will also be accredited.

- Will the results of citizens' voting process be promptly announced at the International Press Center on the day of the election? Does the Central Election Commission have the necessary information and communication technologies to organize its work with such speed?

- The owner. At the beginning of our conversation, we mentioned that the Central Election Commission conducts its work on the basis of the program of main activities to prepare for the elections of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, regional, district and city councils of People's Deputies. According to this program, on December 22, 2019, at the International Press Center, journalists can be informed about the voting process in the entire republic online. During briefings and press conferences organized by the Central Election Commission from time to time throughout the day, the election process is explained on the basis of accurate information.

- The participation of international observers in directly monitoring the elections is important. How many countries and which international organizations are expected to participate in this year's elections?

- I answered this question before. Basharti, since this issue is of interest to many people, it will be useful to repeat it.
Work related to the preparation and conduct of the elections to the parliament and local councils of our country, including the voting process of the voters in the election of political parties operating in our country, local self-government bodies, UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, Association of World Electoral Authorities, SCO, Representatives of many international organizations, such as the CIS, and representatives of foreign countries, journalists, including foreign journalists, are directly followed by thousands of people.

When it comes to the observers of international organizations, we need to mention one more number. About thirty observers of the limited mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights participated in the previous parliamentary elections, and about three hundred representatives of the Office are expected to monitor our hot elections this year. According to preliminary data, the mission will include a core group, as well as 30 long-term and 250 short-term observers. The function of long-term observers is to observe the various stages of the election process in the regions, while the short-term observers observe voting in the districts to which they are attached on the day of the election.

The elections to be held in our country on December 22, 2019 will be held on the basis of universally recognized international election principles - universality, equality, freedom, legality, fairness, secrecy of voting, openness and accountability. serves to take place.

- Thank you very much for your sincere conversation!

(A. Pardayev, "Hurriyat" newspaper, October 5, 2019)