M'sian team to monitor Uzbek presidential election

When the people of Uzbekistan go to the polls on Sunday to elect their president, a Malaysian delegation will be part of the observers monitoring the election.

The eight-member team will be among the estimated 400 foreign observers invited to ensure that the election is open and transparent and follows international standards, said the Uzbekistan Ambassador to Malaysia, Murad Askarov.

The number of registered voters is likely to be higher than that on the list of voters used in the parliamentary elections in December last year, he told Bernama at a recent briefing in Kuala Lumpur.

“This is because more citizens would have turned 18. Uzbeks can vote when they turn 18,” he said.

In the parliamentary elections last year, 20,789,572 citizens were listed as voters, more than 10 million of them under 30 and over five million new voters aged 18 to 22.

The Malaysian delegation, which is expected to arrive Friday, will be led by Dewan Negara (Senate) deputy president Datuk Doris Sophia Brodi, who had said that the invitation would further cement relations between Malaysia and Uzbekistan.

Malaysia established diplomatic relations with Uzbekistan, one of the world's biggest producers of cotton and a country rich in natural resources including oil, gas and gold, in February 1992.

Members of the Malaysian delegation include Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah, who was invited to observe last year's parliamentary elections, and Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) senior vice-president Max Say, also a second-time observer.

Teams from most international organisations invited to monitor the electoral process started arriving here since early March. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is one of these entities.

The activity of the OSCE ODHIR will reportedly enhance the openness and transparency of the electoral process and ensure that it is conducted in accordance with the national electoral legislation and internationals standards.

AzerNews, an Azerbaijani newspaper, said an interim report by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) observer mission stated that the preparation for the presidential election was being held in accordance with the law.

The mission’s report covers the observation of the preparation and the holding of the presidential election.

The report, posted on the CIS Executive Committee website, said the observers had meetings at Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission (CEC), the Foreign Ministry, the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General’s Office and exchanged views on the election campaign.

The four candidates vying to be the president are incumbent president Islam Karimov of the Liberal Democratic Party; Khatamjan Ketmonov of the People's Democratic Party; Narimon Umarov of the Social Democratic Adolat (Justice) Party and Akmal Saidov of the Democratic National Renaissance Party.