Presidential election in Uzbekistan 2016

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Results of the election at regional level

The 2016 presidential election in Uzbekistan was held in the Republic of Uzbekistan on December 4, 2016 . The second presidential election within 21 months was made necessary by the death of longtime President Islom Karimov , who was elected for a fourth term in the 2015 presidential election in Uzbekistan .

Electoral system

According to the Uzbek constitution, the president is elected in a nationwide majority for a five-year term. A candidate needs an absolute majority of the votes cast to win the election. If none of the candidates succeeds, the constitution provides for a runoff between the two most successful candidates in the first ballot. For the first ballot to be valid, a voter turnout of at least 33% is required; there is no such hurdle for a possible runoff election. The right to vote was valid for all Uzbek citizens who were at least 18 years old at the time of the election, with the exception of prisoners and people officially certified as having an intellectual disability . The electoral roll was not drawn up centrally, but at the local level, where it was mostly taken over by the local officials and dignitaries. The right to stand for election was valid for Uzbek citizens aged at least 35 years, who could prove residency in Uzbekistan for at least ten years before the election day and who spoke the Uzbek language . Candidates were nominated exclusively by the registered parties in the country; independent politicians could not run for office. In addition to being nominated by a party, signatures from at least 1% of the eligible population were required to be registered as a candidate. Compared to the previous presidential election, this rate has been reduced from 5% to 1%.

background

With a result of 90.39%, long-time President Karimov won the presidential election in March 2015, the next presidential election should have taken place in spring 2020. Due to Karimov's death on September 2, 2016, the office of President became vacant and early elections were scheduled. On September 8, 2016, then Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev was appointed interim president after the constitutionally responsible chairman of the Senate resigned in favor of Mirziyoyev. Mirziyoyev had been Prime Minister in Uzbekistan since 2003 and was considered a close confidante of Karimov. After the incumbent's death, Mirziyoyev was quickly built up as his successor. He chaired the funeral ceremony and met representatives from other countries on the sidelines of the event, including Russian President Vladimir Putin , with whom he visited Karimov's grave, among other things. On September 9, 2016, December 4 of the same year was announced as election day for the upcoming presidential election.

Candidates

Hotamjon Ketmonov from the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan

As expected, the four registered parties in the country each nominated one candidate, resulting in a field of applicants of four candidates.

With Nariman Umarov and Hotamjon Ketmonov, two candidates ran who had already stood for their respective parties in the previous 2015 presidential election. In 2015, Ketmonov achieved a result of 2.92% of the votes cast, Umarov got 2.05% of the votes cast. Since only parties loyal to the government were registered, the nominated candidates were all considered loyal to former President Karimov and the course of the Liberal Democratic Party. Opposition parties were not registered in Uzbekistan, and numerous opposition members were imprisoned under Karimov or had to flee into exile . Under these circumstances, the field of candidates offered no real choice, despite the candidates' different political priorities. In view of the largely ambitious opposing candidates, a clear victory for Mirziyoyev was expected in the run-up to the election.

Election winner Shavkat Mirziyoyev

Election campaign

The official campaign period began on October 30th and ended on December 2nd. The election campaign took place in a strongly controlled environment, which was characterized, among other things, by the restriction of freedom of expression and assembly . The most important means in the election campaign were election posters and small events with one of the candidates and some voters in closed rooms. The parties were provided with standardized posters with information about the respective candidate, which led to greater homogeneity in the election campaign. In addition, all four parties printed programs in which the political program of the parties was presented. The parties agreed on an upper limit for printed pages that could not be exceeded. This rule meant that parties were allowed to print the more programs the fewer pages they had, so as not to exceed the total number of pages allowed. Major campaign events in the open air could hardly be observed during the election campaign. One of the reasons for this observation was the requirement to register public meetings at least one month in advance. Freedom of the press was also severely restricted in Uzbekistan at the time of the election. Critical journalists have often been arrested and charged on charges of defamation. The state media, which accompanied the election campaign with government-loyal reporting, had the greatest influence in the Uzbek media landscape.

Result

The favored candidate and former interim president Shavkat Mirziyoyev could, as expected, clearly win the election in the first ballot. With a total of 17,951,667 votes cast and an official voter turnout of 87.73%, the final result was as follows:

candidate Political party Votes (absolute) Votes (relative)
Shavkat Mirziyoyev Liberal Democratic Party 15,906,724 88.61%
Hotamjon Ketmonov People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan 669.187 3.73%
Narimon Umarov Adolat 619.972 3.46%
Sarvar Otamuratov Milliy Tiklanish 421.055 2.35%

rating

The election was accompanied by numerous domestic and foreign observers. This included, for the first time, a full-fledged observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) , which observed events in Uzbekistan on election day. In their final report, the observers concluded that the presidential election had clearly missed democratic standards. Among other things, they criticized the lack of political competition and pluralism, the systematic restriction of fundamental rights, the suppression of the opposition and the one-sided reporting in the state media. The newly elected President Mirziyoyev said at an event in front of thousands of supporters that the election result showed that the path that the previous president had set out was being continued. The first foreign head of state to congratulate the newly elected president was Russian President Putin, who reached an agreement with Mirziyoyev on strengthening Russian-Uzbek relations. After the election, observers expected economic reforms to be implemented, but considered far-reaching political reforms to be unlikely. In addition, stronger ties between Uzbekistan and Russia and a diplomatic offensive to improve relations with neighboring Central Asian countries were expected.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ OSCE (ed.): OSCE / ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report . 1st edition. Warsaw March 21, 2017, p. 5-10 .
  2. ^ President Islam Karimov is dead. In: Die Zeit . September 2, 2016, accessed June 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Uzbekistan's Dictator Grabs Fourth Term in Opposition-Free Poll | Eurasianet. Retrieved June 8, 2020 .
  4. ↑ IFES Election Guide | Elections: Uzbekistan President 2015. Accessed June 9, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Uzbekistan Names Longtime PM Mirziyaev Interim President. Retrieved June 8, 2020 .
  6. ↑ OSCE (ed.): OSCE / ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report . 1st edition. Warsaw March 21, 2017, p. 10 .
  7. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Uzbekistan has elected a new president | DW | 04/12/2016. Accessed June 9, 2020 (German).
  8. ↑ OSCE (ed.): OSCE / ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report . 1st edition. Warsaw March 21, 2017, p. 11-15 .
  9. ↑ OSCE (ed.): OSCE / ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report . 1st edition. Warsaw March 21, 2017, p. 26 .
  10. ↑ IFES Election Guide | Elections: Uzbekistan Presidential Election 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
  11. ↑ OSCE (ed.): OSCE / ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report . 1st edition. Warsaw March 21, 2017, p. 1-2 .
  12. ↑ Uzbekistan PM wins presidential vote panned by Western monitors . In: Reuters . December 5, 2016 ( reuters.com [accessed June 9, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Mirziyaev Declared Winner Of Uzbekistan's Presidential Election. Retrieved June 9, 2020 .