Saidov, a professional lawyer, calls for raising political and legal awareness of the public to support democratic development in Uzbekistan.

Building a humane law-based state in Uzbekistan is the principal goal and the key idea in the strategic development of democratic governance and a national legal system in the country in the 21st century, the election manifesto, published by Uzbek newspaper Khalq Sozi on 23 November, said.

This manifesto incorporates three major objectives: establishing a national legal statehood, building an open civil society and increasing political and legal awareness of the public.

The first major objective is to establish a national legal statehood and further democratize the process of building state and society.

Akmal Saidov said: "We consider the following as the key directions for further expanding the principles of democratizing and liberalizing all spheres of social and state life:

- reinforcing the principles of direct and indirect democracy [as published], which correspond to the national, historical, political and legal traditions of our nation, and are in line with the interests of all social groups and strata of the population;

- further increasing the efficiency of the government structures and continuing administrative reforms;

- continuing to develop a fair and humane legal system is the main prerequisite for building a democratic and law-based state;

- reinforcing the real legal framework which guarantees the rights of individuals for free expression of will, realization of their interests and rights for protection. The national human rights monitoring system needs to be further developed. Uzbekistan is not and should not be inferior to any country in the world in securing human rights and freedoms.

The second major objective is to continue the process of establishing a fair and open civil society.

Priority tasks in this direction include:

- improving the necessary legal, organizational, technical and economic conditions, effective methods of cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations in order to further develop civil society institutions, including civil self-governance structures;

- further democratizing all spheres of the state and social life is possible only if each citizen wittingly and actively participates in implementing the strategic goals directed towards modernized building of the state and society, establishing the basis for civil society;

- establishing social partnership between the government and civil society institutions based on equal cooperation;

- reinforcing the legal framework to ensure the freedom of speech and the media;

- further liberalizing the media should be considered as a priority direction in forming the basis of civil society.

The third major objective is to raise the political and legal awareness of the population.

Priority tasks in this direction include:

- ensuring the increase in legal awareness of people and culture of governance, social and political activity in relations between a citizen, the society and the state;

- attaining a respectful attitude of all government agencies, civil society institutions, officials and citizens towards the law.

Speaking about the aforementioned directions, it should be particularly noted that they are not completely new aspects to us. All these are nothing else but further realization of the essence of reforms, which started from the first days of our independence and have gradually been implemented. Carrying out these essential policies at the current stage of our development will guarantee our efforts in continuing the renovation and development process.