On 16 October 2021, a forward team of the SCO Observation Mission began its work on monitoring the elections of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan scheduled for 24 October 2021. The Mission has the invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.
SCO Deputy Secretary-General Yerik Ashimov heads the Mission.
The Mission includes 26 accredited monitors, all of them high-ranking representatives of legislative or electoral bodies of the SCO member states, SCO countries' diplomats, as well as officials from the SCO Secretariat and the SCO RATS Executive Committee.
The Mission will monitor the electoral process in Tashkent and other cities and towns. To get a better idea of the situation, Mission members in Beijing will visit the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in China on the election day.
The Mission members will work until the end of the election period, examining the readiness of polling stations, monitoring the vote, observing the organisation of the process at polling stations, following the vote count, and polling voters, candidates' representatives, and other observers.
The Observation Mission acts under the Statute of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's Observation Mission at Presidential and/or Parliamentary Elections, as well as Referendums of 15 May 2006.