Parliamentary election in Uzbekistan 1994/95
_of_Uzbekistan_in_1994-1999.svg)
The parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan in 1994/95 were the first parliamentary elections in the independent Republic of Uzbekistan . It was held on December 25, 1994 with a second ballot in individual constituencies on January 9 and 22, 1995 . The 250 members of the Oliy Majlis , the Uzbek parliament, were elected.
background
In the process of the collapse of the Soviet Union , the former Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic became independent as the Republic of Uzbekistan on June 20, 1991 . After the presidential election in Uzbekistan in 1991 , Islom Karimov became the first president of the young state. The People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan established itself as the largest political party in the country and, as the successor to the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, shaped political events in Uzbekistan with its chairman Karimov. The holding of an election was made mandatory by the new Uzbek Constitution, which was adopted on December 8, 1992 . The constitution included the establishment of a parliament with 250 members to replace the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR.
Electoral system
The election was based on the principle of majority voting based on 250 electoral districts in the country. Each of these districts sent a deputy to the Uzbek parliament. This had to be elected with an absolute majority , but none of the candidates in the first ballot succeeded in a second ballot between the two best-placed candidates in the first ballot. Candidates could be registered either through the party eligible for election or through local decision-making bodies.
Candidates and parties
A total of 634 candidates ran for the 250 seats in the Uzbek parliament, 250 candidates were nominated at the local level, 243 from the People's Democratic Party and 141 from the Progressive Party. Three candidates ran for election in 55% of the electoral districts, two in 43% of the electoral districts and only one candidate in 2% of the electoral districts. In order to assess the political balance of power, it is also important that many of the locally nominated candidates were also close to the People's Democratic Party and supported the course of the party and its chairman Karimov. The substantive differences between the People's Democratic Party and the Progressive Party were slight and were largely limited to economic policy, where the Progressive Party insisted on faster reforms. Criticism of the president was not voiced by the Progressive Party either, so that no real election campaign could take place in the run-up to the election. Opposition parties like Erk or Birlik were not allowed to vote.
Result
With a turnout of 94%, the People's Democratic Party was, as previously expected, the winner. Runoff elections were held in January 1995 in 45 of the 250 constituencies.
| Political party | Seats |
|---|---|
| People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan | 69 |
| Progress party | 14th |
| local nominees | 167 |
Since neither the Progress Party nor the overwhelming majority of the local nominees took an opposition to the People's Democratic Party, parliament was completely under the control of the People's Democratic Party. For President Karimov, whose office vis-à-vis parliament already included extensive powers, this result meant a further safeguarding of his power.
In the newly composed parliament of Uzbekistan there were 235 male MPs and 15 female MPs.
.jpg)
rating
Foreign observers rated the election as neither free nor fair. The obvious repression of the opposition and the absence of any political debate had a negative impact on the parliamentary elections. After the parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Abdulxashim Mutalov and his cabinet remained in office and continued the line of unconditional loyalty to President Karimov so that he could de facto control parliament. After the election, Karimov himself called for more diverse expressions of opinion on political issues in the country, but in the years that followed he consistently expanded his autocratic rule . After the election, the opposition spoke of a total loss of importance for parliament.
Individual evidence
- ↑ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Refworld | US Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 1994 - Uzbekistan. Accessed March 31, 2020 (English).
- ^ Bellers, Jürgen .: Handbook of foreign policy: from Afghanistan to Cyprus . Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-24848-0 , p. 1037 f .
- ↑ Fröhlich, Constanze .: Hotspot Afghanistan: An Analysis of the Regional Security Impact, 1979-2004 . Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg i. Br. 2005, ISBN 3-928597-43-4 , pp. 121 ff .
- ↑ Ro'i, Yaacov .: Uzbekistan and the United States: Authoritarianism, Islamism and Washington's security agenda. Zed Books, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-84813-799-8 .
- ↑ UZBEKISTAN: parliamentary elections Oliy Majlis, 1994-1995. Accessed March 31, 2020 .
- ↑ Koszinowski, Thomas., Matters, Hanspeter .: Middle East Yearbook 1994: Politics, Economy and Society in North Africa and the Near and Middle East. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 978-3-322-95767-2 , p. 41 .
