Observing Positive Democratic Developments in Uzbekistan

The people of Uzbekistan went to polls on December 22 and elected the legislative chamber of their parliament, an electoral exercise being noticed as a major step forward for democratic process in this Central Asian nation.

Democracy and the process of democratization in Central Asian Republics (CARs) – in the period post independence from the former USSR since 1991 – has, by and large, been a subject of criticism in international, specially the western-dominated discourse. However, while the reality of ‘one size does not fit all’ is increasingly manifesting itself, globally; positive democratic developments are also being recorded in this former soviet region. Uzbek elections being discussed here are a notable positive example.

On this day, some 20.5 million voters of Uzbekistan chose not only the lower house of the parliament, but also the local government set-ups. This writer had an opportunity to observer, in depth, this electoral exercise as an International Observer, amongst hundreds of other observers from dozens of countries.

On the polling day and a day before, I visited 17 polling stations altogether. State-of-the art arrangements were made and it was clear that the polling staff have been trained professionally. The whole exercise was being conducted in a fair, transparent and professional manner.

It was heartening to note that special arrangements were made for the disabled; even teams went to the houses of those who could not come out to vote, for any reason.

The polling continued from 8am till 8pm, for 12 hours smoothly, in a country where sun shines only for just over 9 hours in this cold winter. Yet, the turnout indeed was very high, touching the 70% mark (final figure was 67.8%).

A day after the polls, the country’s central Election Commission announced the results of 128 out of 150 seats contested. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party came first with 43, followed closely by Milli Tiklanish Democraric Party’s 35 seats. Adolat Social Democratic Party bagged 21, while People’s Democratic Party got 18 and Ecological party managed 13 seats in total.

On 22 of the seats, no candidate could pass the required mark of 50% votes, so a run-off is to be held on these seats within two weeks of the initial elections.

A very interesting feature of the election was that every party was required to nominate at least 30 percent women amongst its contesting candidates. The number of females among the candidates thus was over 40 %. More than 20 women have made it to the parliament; with direct election form the constancies. Televised debates were held among the representatives of the five contesting parties, that injected a new wave of interest and enthusiasm among the people.

This author, along with other international observers, observed the polling right from the beginning till the end. We talked to electoral staff, voters, and representatives of the political parties: all expressed their confidence in the conduct of the elections.

More than 2 million among the nation’s 20.5 million plus voters were to vote for the very first time in their lives. All the youth we talked to, in and out of the polling stations, were excited about casting their votes. International experts are of the view that Liberal Democratic Party getting the largest number of seats is a clear expression of confidence by the people of Uzbekistan in the policies of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev whose personal efforts of past three years have put the country on the path to fast paced growth as well as broad-based development.

The teams of international observers from Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries have also expressed their confidence and accorded a positive nod of clear approval to the electoral exercise. It goes without saying that no electoral exercise, in any country of the world, can be termed as ‘perfect’ by any means. Thus, there always remains a room for further improvement, more so in newly-emerging democracies, but it would not be wrong to state that Uzbekistan has moved significantly up the democratic ladder with this election.

Some of the experts we talked to went on to say that this electoral exercise in Uzbekistan is not only a giant step forward for the country itself, but – considering the fact that Uzbekistan hosts more than half of the total population of Central Asia – it also can serve as a model for countries of the region and beyond.

It is hoped that the new legislative chamber that will take shape as a result of this election will be a rare admixture of unavoidable continuity as well as necessary change in the governmental policies. Uzbekistan’s economy is progressing very fast, for past several years and continues to integrate itself further with regional states as well as to South and West Asia. The election of December 22 has also made it clear that democratic process is also on the positive trajectory, in the country. This indeed is positive development for the entire region.

The author is founder of Eurasian Century Institute (ECI), Islamabad. Email: [email protected]