By Agha Iqrar Haroon
Bukhara, Uzbekistan: The Presidential elections in Uzbekistan were held on December 4, 2016 peacefully with no report of election violation registered with Central Election Commission.
The announcement of preliminary results of Presidential elections of Uzbekistan will be held today in a press briefing, said officials of Election Commision.
Voting ended at 2000 hours of (Tashkent time) throughout the country and preliminary reports suggested that 87% of 21 million registered voters cast their ballots while no electoral law violations were registered with Election Commission or reported in national media.
Over 9,000 polling stations were established all over the country to cater 21 million registered voters in Uzbekistan that has a total population of 33 million people.
The Central Election Commission will announce the preliminary results of the presidential election at a briefing at 04:00 p.m. (Tashkent time) on Monday, December 5.
A large number of voters were seen gathering early morning outside polling stations and a heavy turnout was reported before lunch break in Bukhara. A clear sky and pleasant weather in otherwise cloudy December also helped voters to enjoy polling day as holiday and families were throbbing to polling stations early morning.
Every polling station in Bukhara was equipped with a Children playing rooms where children could be see playing while their mother were casting their votes.
Medical staff was present in medical centres established inside polling station to provide any medical help if needed by voters while visiting polling stations.
Transparency for casting vote was ensured by providing cabins to stamp the ballot paper secretly and then putting the stamped vote in a transparent ballot box.
Monitoring rooms were established in all 14 electoral districts to monitor voting process while Central Election Commission (CEC) of Uzbekistan had a national monitor room to oversee election process in the country.
Main runner for Presidential Elections is acting President who is also the Prime Minister of the country— Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Four political parties of Uzbekistan were allowed to contest in the presidential election under the rules laid by Uzbek constitution including Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party (UzLiDeP), People’s Democratic Party (PDPU), Milly Tiklanish (National Revival) Party and Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party.
Acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev from UzLiDeP polled his vote in his region while other candidates including Sarvar Otamuratov from Milly Tiklanish Party, Nariman Umarov from Adolat Party and Hotamzhon Ketmonov from PDPU also polled their votes early morning. All candidates looked confident to win the election and were satisfied with arrangements provided by CEC.
According to the Uzbek legislation, the elections will be considered valid if no less than 33% of the voters take part in the process. A candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote will win the elections. According to rules, final and official results are released within ten days after the polling day but initial results are usually announced soon after the voting is over.
It may be mentioned that Uzbekistan went for extraordinary early Presidential elections due to demise of ex-president Islam Karimov who died at the at age of 79 on September 2, 2016. He ran this landlocked central asian state for 25 year.
