According to results published by the Central Election Committee, the ruling party – the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party (UzLiDeP) won 42,7 percent of the vote and remained by far the largest party in parliament. UzLiDeP is the party of President Mirziyoyev who has been in power since 2016. The party was formed by former president Islam Karimov in 2003.
The other parties running in the election formally play the role of opposition but are generally considered to be progovernment parties [1]. These were the Uzbekistan “National Revival” Democratic Party (Oʻzbekiston “Milliy Tiklanish” Demokratik Partiyasi) (19,3%), the “Adolat” Social Democratic Party (“Adolat” sotsial-demokratik partiyasi) (14%), the Uzbekistan People’s Democratic Party (O‘zbekiston Xalq Demokratik Partiyasi) (13%), and the Uzbekistan Ecological Party (O‘zbekiston ekologik partiyasi) (10,7%).
On a press conference in Tashkent on October 28, the day following the election, the OSCE/ODIHR pointed to improvements in terms of voter accessibility, the electoral legislation and representation of women, but highlighted that the political environment remained constrained and that voters were not provided with genuine choice. In particular, the OSCE/ODIHR raised concerns about limitations on freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression in Uzbekistan and the lack of independent civil-society observers.
In its published preliminary findings, the OSCE/ODIHR states that the election was well-prepared and that election day was “calm and orderly but marred by numerous cases of identified violations, malfeasance as well as procedural and technical problems”. Their observers assessed the voting negatively in 12 per cent of the observed polling stations “due to frequent serious procedural violations, particularly regarding the inadequate implementation of safeguards for verification of voter eligibility and preventing multiple voting”. The OSCE also found numerous violations with regards to vote counting and tabulation: “Counting procedures were not followed in over half of the observed polling stations, omitting critical reconciliation steps and raising concerns about the integrity of the process. (…) Overall, the counting and tabulation process raised serious concerns about whether ballots were counted and reported honestly, as required by paragraph 7.4 of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document.”
The October 27 elections were the first elections to be held under the new mixed majoritarian-proportional electoral system introduced in late 2023, and formally mark Uzbekistan’s transition from a majority voting system. Under this system, electoral districts are categorized into single-member and single electoral districts. Seventy-five deputies of the lower house of parliament are elected from single-member constituencies using a majoritarian system while the remaining 75 are elected through a proportional system, based on the votes received by political parties (party lists).
The new electoral system is part of a wide set of reforms and new policies introduced under President Mirziyoyev since his ascent to the presidency in 2016. According to authorities, the reforms, often labelled collectively as “New Uzbekistan” will recast Uzbekistan as a social state and secure the rights of the individual. The new policies have included the release of dozens of high-profiled Karimov-era political prisoners, the exclusion of evidence obtained under torture and increased freedoms for civil society and independent media. However, the last few years have seen a renewed clampdown on fundamental freedoms in Uzbekistan, with the space for civil society and freedom of expression again shrinking. Part of these reforms were also a 2023 revision of the Constitution of Uzbekistan. While the amendments to the Constitution enshrined certain rights, introduced Miranda rights and banned discrimination, the amendments also reset President Mirziyoyev’s presidential terms, allowing him to rule the country until 2037.
The elections on October 27 were the second legislative elections in Uzbekistan since President Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016. The previous elections, held in 2019, saw the same political parties winning seats in parliament as the elections this Sunday. In its previous report OSCE ODIHR concluded that the 2019 Parliamentary elections “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.” Since independence, Uzbekistan has never held elections deemed free and fair by the OSCE/ODIHR.
While only five parties participated in the elections, political life in Uzbekistan is more dynamic than what appears on the surface. For the past few years, professor of economics Khidirnazar Allakulov has been running an unofficial and unregistered social-democratic party. His party, the Truth and Progress Party (“Haqiqat va Taraqqiyot” sotsial-demokratik partiyasi) positions itself as a secular, centre-left political party and held its founding congress on March 8, 2021, after several attempts of holding a founding congress had been disrupted. In the month after the founding congress, the party submitted a registration application to the Justice Ministry. The party claimed to have gathered 32 000 supporting signatures – meeting the 20 000-signature threshold required for official registration by the “Law on Political Parties”. However, the Justice Ministry rejected the party’s application ruling that only some 10 000 of the signatures were valid. Despite renewed efforts, the party has not been able to register since and was barred from participating in the October-27 elections.
Another opposition party that is kept out of the elections is the Erk Democratic Party (“Erk” Demokratik Partiyasi). Erk was established already in 1990 as a pro-independence party working for an independent and democratic Uzbekistan, according to its’ own charter. In opposition to the authorities since its formation, the party nominated a candidate to run against Islam Karimov in the presidential elections in 1991. Due to new legislation at the time, the Erk Party was not able to renew its party registration in 1994, it has since been operating as an unofficial opposition party. Many of its supporters, leaders and activists have been driven into exile by political repression.
Recent years’ efforts to enter the official political landscape have not yet bore fruits for the Erk party. In 2018, the then-head of the security services commented on the party’s attempt to obtain official registration, saying that “their primary goal now is to gain legal recognition, with an ultimate aim of destabilizing the peace and tranquillity in our country”. The latest talks between party activists and authorities concluded in 2020 when the Minister of Justice told activists to give up aspirations for Erk, claiming it was a thing of the past.