The International Press Centre of Uzbekistan's Central Election Commission in Tashkent hosted a roundtable on Elections 2019 on 18 December 2019. Members of the SCO Mission led by SCO Deputy Secretary-General Xie Xiaoyong took part in the discussion.
The event was also attended by diplomats accredited in Uzbekistan, members of the CIS Mission, parliamentary candidates from the Uzbekistan Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party, the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (the entrepreneurs and business people movement), the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party and representatives of the foreign and local media.
The discussion was structured in a modern Q&A format. Representatives of the country's political parties informed the participants about their election programmes and answered questions of interest to international observers.
SCO Deputy Secretary-General Xie Xiaoyong reported on the SCO Mission's observation activities and praised the preparatory stage of the electoral process based on the intermediate monitoring results.
"The SCO Mission's preliminary analysis indicates that the election campaign is being carried out in accordance with Uzbekistan's election laws. Equal conditions have been established for all candidates. I would especially like to note the recent changes in the electoral legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In June 2019, the country drafted and adopted an Electoral Code to systematise its election laws. The new legislation combines the requirements of the five previously separate laws regulating the preparation and conduct of the election of the President, deputies of the Legislative Chamber, members of the Senate, and deputies of regional, district and city councils into one document. The new Electoral Code plays an important role in democratising the electoral process and in the progressive development of Uzbek statehood," Xie Xiaoyong emphasised.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Uzbekistan Vladimir Tyurdenev, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Uzbekistan Zhang Wenchuan and Head of the CIS Observer Mission Headquarters Yevgeny Kozyak also spoke at the roundtable.
One of the SCO's tasks is to monitor presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as referendums. The current observer mission is the 50th since 2004. The SCO Mission operates in Uzbekistan at the invitation of the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in accordance with the Regulation on the SCO Observer Mission in presidential and/or parliamentary elections and referendums, of 15 May 2006.