Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- At the regular plenary meeting of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, the draft Constitutional Law “On introducing amendments and additions to some legislative acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan, aimed at further improving the procedure for holding elections and referendums” was considered in the second reading deputies based on the right of legislative initiative.

It was noted that the draft Constitutional Law, aimed at holding elections of deputies of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis on the basis of a mixed electoral system (majoritarian and proportional), as well as the formation of a centralized system of electoral bodies, optimization of the system of election commissions, and improvement of the activities of the Central Election Commission, aroused heated discussion. The reason for this was that the deputies at the last two plenary sessions examined in detail each norm of the document.

A number of proposals were discussed at committee meetings, and those found to be justified were used to improve the bill. In the process of finalizing the bill, the responsible committee has established effective interaction with deputies and specialists.

In particular, the concept of the bill involves the creation of a vertical system of electoral bodies capable of professionally organizing and conducting elections. Therefore, the draft powers of election commissions at all levels are clearly disclosed in the Electoral Code. However, organizational and technical issues that cannot be provided for in the Code, or rather the definition of the procedure for work in election commissions, remained open. Based on this, Article 26 of the Election Code was supplemented with part three, which specifically states that “the procedure for office work in territorial, district, city, district and precinct commissions is determined by the Central Election Commission.”

Also, some gaps were identified in the bill and provisions were introduced to fill them legally. In particular, the concept of the bill involves the creation of a vertical system of electoral bodies capable of professionally organizing and conducting elections.

In addition, some duplicative provisions have been excluded from the draft. In particular, it was determined that the occurrence of the grounds provided for in part two of Article 71 of the Electoral Code is grounds for excluding a candidate from the party list. Consequently, article 71 provides that citizens who have a criminal record for a serious or especially serious crime cannot be registered as a candidate for deputy. Therefore, paragraph 8 of the first part of Article 42/1 was excluded as a repeating norm.

Along with this, the draft Constitutional Law stipulates that at least two out of every five candidates on the party list must be women. This ensures gender equality and will help women realize their potential.

According to the deputies, the adoption of the draft Constitutional Law will serve to bring the legislation on elections and referendums into compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the new edition, establish a new modern system for forming parliament, and increase the participation and role of political parties in this process.

At the meeting, the draft Constitutional Law was adopted by deputies.