Monday, 15 June 2009
In Uzbekistan, electoral legislation meets the highest democratic principles and standards, foreign experts and scientists said at an international conference in Tashkent, Uzbek TV reported on 12 June.
A mission of international experts have positively assessed the Uzbek electoral legislation, the TV said, quoting the head of the CIS election observers. "I would like to state that the election system is based on democratic principles in Uzbekistan. The country's parliamentary and presidential elections were held as scheduled in line with the constitution. So, electoral commissions in central, regional and district constituencies also performed based on the principles of openness," the head of the CIS observation mission of the CIS Executive Committee, Yevgeniy Sloboda, was shown as saying on Uzbek TV.
The TV report said that Uzbekistan had been gradually reforming its electoral legislation. It quoted Uzbek President Islam Karimov as noting the importance of elections in building a civil society. "Our country has always been amending legislation in line with modern principles, the TV said, quoting the Uzbek president.
"Recent changes introduced into the legislation, undoubtedly, serve to improve democracy in Uzbekistan. Currently, the country's legal basis meets all the international requirements. I was pleased to learn about the Uzbek parliament's decision to allocate a 30-per-cent quota for women. It is not on that level in Italy," the TV showed an Italian university professor as saying.
"Uzbekistan overtakes Japan in some aspects of democratic reforms. Women's share in the (Japanese) parliament is only 4.4 per cent, and the figure is 18 per cent in Uzbekistan. Women seats in a parliament is, on average, 17 per cent in the world," a Japanese university teacher was shown as saying on the Uzbek TV.
The TV report also said that an institution for representatives of political parties has been established in the country. The representatives have the right to take part in counting votes and checking how correctly ballot papers were filled, it concluded.
