Baltic States – CIS, Demography, Elections, Uzbekistan
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Friday, 19.04.2024, 14:28
Improvements in electoral legislation in the context of ensuring fundamental human rights and freedoms
As part of the
Strategy of Action across five priority areas for development of Uzbekistan
over the period 2017-2021, extensive work is being done in the country to
ensure the protection of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights
and freedoms of citizens and to implement the most important constitutional
principle proclaiming, "the ultimate value is the human being, human life,
freedom, honour, dignity and other inalienable rights".
Over the last three
years, systemic measures have been implemented to bring national legislation in
line with international human rights standards. Among them are Ratification 4
ILO conventions and Constitution of IOM as well as the adoption of four new
codes, more than 160 laws and more than 1,200 presidential decrees and
resolutions.
Today, the
provisions of more than 70 major international human rights instruments to
which our country is a party have been incorporated into the articles and
provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan and national
legislation. Among them,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, the UN
Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, as well as the
Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections, the Document of the
Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE and
others.
According to
international legal documents, “the will of the people shall be the basis of
the authority of a government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and
genuine elections, which shall be held with universal and equal suffrage and
shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”
Article 117 of the
Constitution states that elections of the president, Legislative Chamber of
Parliament and local representative bodies of state power are to be held on the
basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot. Citizens of the
Republic of Uzbekistan who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote.
Elections are held at five-year intervals.
The Electoral Code,
which was adopted by the Parliament taking into account international electoral
standards and the requirements for elections, sets out practical mechanisms for
the implementation of these constitutional norms and ensuring the political
rights and freedoms of citizens, freedom of choice and freedom of thought,
speech and opinion.
First, international principles on universal and
equal suffrage are enshrined in the legislation.
According to
articles 4 and 5 of the Electoral Code, “citizens, regardless of sex, race,
nationality, language, attitude to religion, social origin, beliefs, personal
and social status, education, type and nature of occupation, have equal
suffrage”. Every citizen participating in elections has one vote.
Second, the previous ban on the participation in
elections of persons held in places of detention for crimes that do not
represent a great public danger and are less serious has been removed.
Now, according to
the legislation, only citizens who have been declared incapacitated by a court,
and persons detained in places of detention by a court sentence for serious and
especially serious crimes do not participate in the elections. In any other
cases, direct or indirect restriction of citizens' suffrage rights is
prohibited.
These norms,
which are essential to ensure the political rights of citizens, are more
democratic than in many OSCE countries, where persons deprived of their liberty
are not eligible for election.
Third, the Code ensures direct suffrage of
citizens and the secrecy of the vote. In other words, the principle is that
everything in an election, except for the secrecy of the vote, is open and
transparent.
Thus, deputies of
the Legislative Chamber of Parliament and deputies of local councils are
directly elected by citizens.
Despite the fact
that election commissions at all levels carry out their activities openly and
transparently, the voting itself is free and secret; control over the will of
the voters is not allowed. The secrecy of the vote is ensured by the creation
of appropriate conditions that exclude the possibility of any control over the
will of the voter.
Fourth, the country's electoral legislation
provides for the implementation of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, which
states that OSCE participating states must “respect the right of citizens to
seek political or public office, individually or as representatives of
political parties or organizations without discrimination.”
Article 70 of the
Code provides that: the nomination of candidates for deputies is carried out by
the highest bodies of political parties; the procedure for selecting candidates
for deputies is determined by the political parties themselves.
The number of women
must not be less than 30% of the total number of candidates for deputies
nominated from a political party, and political parties are entitled to
nominate members of their party as candidates or non-affiliated. In other
words, any citizen, including a non-affiliated citizen, can also become a
candidate for deputy and its right to seek political or public office in its
individual capacity is fully ensured.
Fifth, the right of citizens to have access to
information, especially regarding elections and results, is ensured. Thus, the
right of citizens to access information, especially regarding elections and
results, is ensured:
- The mass media
provide coverage over the course of campaigning and elections;
- Decisions of
election commissions are published in the media or published in accordance with
the established procedure;
- Observers from
political parties, citizen self-governing bodies, media representatives and
observers from other states as well as international organizations have the
right to participate in all election preparations and activities, as well as in
the voting room on election day and in the vote count. This year participation
is expected by around 100,000 observers from five political parties, as well as
more than 650 international observers;
Sixth, the necessary conditions have been created
for the exercise of the voting rights of citizens of the country regardless of
where they are in the world.
Thus, polling
stations may be set up at diplomatic and other missions of Uzbekistan in
foreign countries. These polling stations encompass the districts in which they
are located. The Central Electoral Commission decides on the district
allocation of polling stations organized outside Uzbekistan.
Seventh, the Code provides for standards that make
it possible to exercise the constitutional right of citizens to judicial
protection of their rights and freedoms and to appeal to the courts against
unlawful acts of state bodies, officials and voluntary associations.
Thus, a candidate
or an observer has the right to file a complaint regarding any aspect of the
electoral process (including requesting a recount or invalidating the election
results).
Article 102 of the
Electoral Code is devoted to this issue. It stipulates that decisions of
election commissions can be appealed by the bodies of political parties that
nominated candidates for deputies, candidates for deputies, proxies, observers
and voters to the higher election commission or to the court within ten days
after the adoption of the decision.
Central Election
Commission decisions can be appealed to the Supreme Court within ten days of
the decision being made. The complaint must be considered within three days
after its receipt, and if there are less than six days until election day,
immediately. Those who filed a complaint have the right to participate directly
in its consideration.
In conclusion, it
should be noted that the adoption of and the implementation of the Strategy for
Action in the country marked the beginning of a qualitatively new stage in the
development of our statehood.
All the democratic
reforms being implemented, be it in the sphere of public administration,
economy, social and humanitarian sphere, as well as the judicial and legal
field, all of them are aimed, first and foremost, at the protection of human
rights, freedoms and the legitimate interests of our ordinary citizens.
Given the
profound changes that are sweeping our society and people’s minds over the past
three years, we can confidently say that the 2019 elections will be held in a
completely new political environment, with intense cross-party competition,
ideas and programs. And the Electoral Code adopted by the Parliament will
become a reliable basis for holding genuine democratic elections.