Uzbek president votes in parliamentary election

Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec.21 By Demir Azizov– Trend: President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov voted at the 644th polling station December 21 during the election to the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan and the Tashkent city Kenghashes (Councils) of People's Deputies, the government’s portal said Dec. 21. The polling stations throughout the whole country opened at 06:00 (UTC/GMT +5 hours) and they will operate till 20:00 (UTC/GMT +5 hours). Under the country’s law, the elections are considered valid if the voter turnout equals 33 percent. The election campaign for the parliamentary elections started on Sept.15. Some 135 constituencies, for an average of 154,000 voters in one district, 9,035 polling stations (including 44 polling stations at Uzbekistan’s representative offices in other countries) have been created in accordance with the requirements of the election law. Precinct election commissions have made the complete lists of voters – a total of 20,789,572 citizens. The country’s total population nears 31 million. All the voters have been informed about the place and date of voting. The voters which are not able to be in the place of residence on the voting day, were given the right of early voting on Dec.11-19. Four political parties operating in the country were allowed to take part in the elections. These are the Liberal Democratic Party, People’s Democratic Party, the Democratic Party Milly Tiklanish (National Revival), and the Social Democratic Party Adolat (Justice). Each of these parties have submitted to the Central Elections Commission (CEC) the required number of subscription lists of voters (at least 40,000) supporting their participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency