Uzbekistan - 22 December 2019 Elections
The Constitution confers strong powers on the presidential office. The Parliament is composed of two chambers, both with a five-year term: an indirectly elected Senate, composed of 100 senators, and the Legislative Chamber, composed of 150 deputies. The Head of State shares legislative powers with the parliament through the issuance of binding decrees, resolutions and ordinances. In 2014, the role of the parliament was reinforced by granting the largest parliamentary party the power to nominate the prime minister. A further change was approved in March 2019 such that the parliament considers and approves the prime minister’s nominations for ministerial positions, which are subsequently confirmed by the president. This represents a potentially significant revision of the balance of governmental power. Notwithstanding these changes, the outgoing legislative chamber has only 108 sitting members as most of the other 42 have been appointed to executive posts without by-elections to replace them.
The reforms have created more space for citizens to air grievances, to discuss the political parties’ policy proposals and a greater tolerance of criticism including directed towards the state administration. Independent voices are not numerous but do exist and are becoming audible. Some citizens feel that they are now at liberty to post views online through blogs and social networks. However, a security apparatus with capabilities for close surveillance remains in place, and active, impacting on citizens’ behaviour. Though some rules on the freedom of assembly have been relaxed, public dissent, including on social media, can result in prosecution or even detention.
Despite the registration of a new political party, the Ecological Party of Uzbekistan (EPU), the political party landscape is largely unchanged.4 Four other registered parties are all represented in the outgoing parliament.5 All five parties are supportive of the government and the president, and none have proposed policies that are at odds with theirs. After the last elections, majority and minority blocs were formed of the parliamentary parties. However, none of the parties can yet be considered as in opposition to the president.
On 20 September, the Central Election Commission (CEC) called the parliamentary elections to the lower (legislative) chamber of Oliy Majlis (parliament) for 22 December 2019.1 The elections were conducted in the context of comprehensive reforms, initiated by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in 2017. The reform strategy, which is being implemented in stages, aims to transform Uzbekistan’s economic, social and political life. The elections, held under the slogan “New Uzbekistan – New Elections”, constituted an important milestone in what the president has termed an irreversible modernisation and democratisation process.
Opposition parties are forbidden and denied registration, therefore they are unable to take part in elections. These unregistered opposition parties, or groups, predominantly function in exile. During the early 1990s various opposition parties and individuals were arrested on charges of ‘anti-state activities’. In 2006 Sanjar Umarov, head of the Sunshine Uzbekistan opposition movement, was jailed for 11 years (later reduced to eight) for ‘economic crimes’. The group had criticised the Andijan crackdown in 2005 and urged economic reform. This was an example of President Karimov’s stance on oppositional forces. Generally, oppositional organizations have had the goal of establishing democracy in Uzbekistan. Most do not have a clear program and none of them could be regarded as social democratic, however they can be considered as more progressive than the political parties that ran for parliament in the 2014/2015 parliamentary elections.
The 22 December 2019 vote was the first parliamentary elections since Mirziyoev came to power nearly three years earlier. He had an opportunity to turn the Karimov-era parliament into a Mirziyoev-parliament. That meant there would be some new and younger faces in parliament, though they would probably continue to function much as their predecessors had for the past 28 years. It remained quite difficult to distinguish one party from another.
Since President Islam Karimov's death in late 2016, the central Asian country gradually started shifting towards better economic and social freedoms. Under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's rule, significant improvements in freedom of media and speech as well as in relations with the outside world were made. Mirziyoyev also released more than 50 political prisoners. A new electoral code was in place and the changes require 30 percent of party candidates to be women. Voting restrictions for individuals with criminal proceedings and convictions had also been lifted.
The campaign took place in an environment characterized by increased assertion of and tolerance by the authorities for freedom of expression, though legal restrictions on this and other fundamental freedoms persisted. While the Election Code improves the rules on holding campaign meetings between candidates and voters, mass rallies still require prior authorisation from the local executive bodies.
The election campaign saw, for the first time, a freer media landscape with journalists and bloggers actively monitoring the process. Live-streamed debates between party candidates showed a formerly unknown side of Uzbekistan's politics. Monitors from the United Nations and the OSCE have also closely observed the process. While Uzbekistan has become much more open over the past three years, security services are still powerful, the judiciary is hardly independent, and many people continue to remain in prison on politically motivates charges.
Despite all the changes, however, the new electoral law has not made the political system more competitive. The requirement to gather 20,000 signatures in order to create a party has proven to be impossible to overcome, as no new party has been registered in the country since 2003 and the five existing parties have been part of the system. People don't see deputies as drivers able to change the system. Everything is decided by the president. It was like that under Karimov and it is like that now. There is no real opposition, no real competition and the parliament doesn't have much power.
While the campaign was more open, relevant CEC resolutions created an inflexible and overly detailed framework for election campaigning. Outside the media there was limited campaigning and there was little evidence of parties’ self-organized campaign activities. Often, meetings with voters were confined to events organised by election administration. A literal interpretation of the requirement for equal opportunity, and funding constraints gave parties and candidates only a very limited scope to define their individual campaign strategies.
The 22 December parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan took place under improved legislation and with greater tolerance of independent voices but did not yet demonstrate genuine competition and full respect of election day procedures. The elections showed that the ongoing reforms need to continue and be accompanied by more opportunities for grassroot civic initiatives. The contesting parties presented their political platforms and the media hosted debates, many aired live, but campaign rules are still restrictive, and the range of political options remained limited. There is more acceptance of free expression, but few independent associations exist. Regrettably, the new legislation and modernized administration of elections did not improve the polling process, with international observers reporting numerous serious irregularities, such as voting on behalf of others and disregard for key procedures during counting.
Despite the adoption of a number of socio-economic and political reforms and some improvements in the respect for human rights, the range of political options remains limited. With one exception, no new party has been registered since 2003. All parties are supportive of presidential policies, and while parties worked to distinguish themselves during the campaign, none identify themselves as an opposition party. The law does not allow individual, self-nominated non-party candidates to stand for election. These factors limited the opportunity for elections to serve as a contest between distinct political viewpoints and narrowed the choice available to voters.
In general, candidates did not challenge their rivals on their political platforms. The prevalent themes were social policies, delivery of services and economic development. All parties repeatedly expressed support for presidential policies and the reform agenda. As a result, the campaign was not competitive and voters were presented with few discernible political alternatives, which limited their choice.
Five blocs were represented in parliament before. The same quintet will be there for the coming half-decade. A provisional count of ballots from the December 22 contest showed President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Liberal Democratic Party, or UzLiDeP, getting at least 43 out of the 150 seats, thereby retaining its pole position. Milliy Tiklanish held onto its second-place spot with 35 seats. The Social Democratic Party, or Adolat, won 21 seats, the People’s Democratic Party got 18, and the Ecological Party, which used to be allocated 15 deputies by default, came in last with 11 seats. Another 22 seats were due to go to runoff contests.
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