The well-organised elections took place in accordance with national legislation, the MP said.
Senators of the Russian Federation took part in monitoring the early presidential elections in the Republic of Uzbekistan, said First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture Iliyas Umakhanov, who led the Federation Council delegation.
The elections took place on 9 July, and voters were able to cast their ballots at polling stations in advance from 28 June through 5 July.
The delegation of the Russian Parliament’s upper house included Chair of the Federation Council Committee on the Rules of Procedure and Parliamentary Governance Vyacheslav Timchenko, Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Farit Mukhametshin, Member of the Federation Council Committee on Agriculture and Food Policy and Environmental Management Alexander Narolin and Member of the Federation Council Committee on the Budget and Financial Markets Akhmat Salpagarov.
“The well-organised elections in Uzbekistan took place in accordance with national legislation,” Iliyas Umakhanov noted. He recalled that these were the first national presidential elections following the amendments to the Republic’s Constitution.
According to Iliyas Umakhanov, the senators worked with international monitoring missions from the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Akhmat Salpagarov, Vyacheslav Timchenko and Iliyas Umakhanov), the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (Farit Mukhametshin) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (Alexander Narolin).
Iliyas Umakhanov said that Russian MPs had visited polling stations in Samarkand, Tashkent and the Tashkent Region, and had met with members of election commissions, authorised representatives of candidates, voters and experts. For example, they met with First Deputy Speaker of the Senate Sadyk Safayev. The senators also took part in drafting the findings of international observer missions.
“The Central Election Commission, state agencies and local self-government bodies of Uzbekistan accomplished a lot, while preparing for and holding the elections, including the creation of favourable campaigning opportunities for political parties,” Iliyas Umakhanov said. In his words, the involvement of candidates representing various political parties in the election campaign facilitated competitiveness and allowed voters to choose any candidate to their liking.
According to Iliyas Umakhanov, Co-Chair of the Commission on Cooperation between the Federation Council and the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Russian senators met with Uzbekistani MPs during their trip. “We discussed a number of issues of interparliamentary and interregional cooperation and prospects for our subsequent collaboration,” the Senator concluded.