Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports

While Uzbeks’ choice of candidates will be narrower, they at least now know their systems is among the most democratic.

Uzbekistan has held parliamentary elections three times since gaining independence in 1991; none have been seen by observers as meeting Western democratic standards.

On December 27, Uzbeks will again head to the polls to vote in a new Legislative Chamber, although going in all indications are that — with no opposition candidates — it will not fare any better than its predecessors.

But this poll for the rubber-stamp lower house has incorporated some new twists that, even if the result of the carefully controlled contest ends up the same, have made for a more interesting and elaborate show during the campaign period.

For one thing, the country’s four registered political parties, all of which are openly pro-presidential — are criticizing each other.

At the start of the last presidential race, in 2007, the People’s Democratic Party (KhDP), the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party, the National Revival Party, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (LDPU) all nominated incumbent President Islam Karimov as their candidate.

Karimov, who has ruled the country since early 1990, accepted the nomination of the LPDU, the country’s youngest party.

Now, the parties appear to be addressing a criticism Karimov first made in April 2004, when he said that the country’s political parties “do not have a solid, independent platform, to the point where they differ little from one another.”

It’s not whether you support President Karimov, but how.

The article goes on to say,

For voters wishing to know more about aspects of democratic elections, Uzbek television has been airing a new program during the campaign. However, “Elections — A Reflection Of Democracy” have concentrated mainly on validating the way Uzbekistan conducts its elections.

On the October 3 edition of the program, Central Election Commission deputy head Kochkor Togaev said Uzbekistan’s electoral practices are more democratic than that of many other countries. For example, Togaev noted, “If a person does not take part in the election, he will not be prosecuted.”

And:

A significant change to the parliamentary elections is that only candidates from the four registered political parties can compete.

Previously, the law allowed for independent candidates or candidates from “initiative groups.” One of the candidates in the 2007 presidential election was from an initiative group.

Mavjuda Rajabova — who sits in the Senate, the upper house of parliament whose members will be determined by local council deputies in January — explained why initiative groups or independent candidates weren’t needed during another segment of “Elections — A Reflection Of Democracy.”

“The majority of the population has been involved in the parties’ activities,” Rajabova said, adding that “certain criminal elements yearning for parliamentary seats could enter the parliament by organizing initiative groups of voters.”

But even if the change were eliminate “criminal elements” from running for parliamentary seats, where does the process leave politicians who wish to serve in parliament but need their party’s approval?

Komila Sodikova is a member of the LDPU who wants to run for a seat in parliament but cannot. She tells RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service that she is “ready to sacrifice my life for the motherland, for the president,” but when she tried to register as a candidate she was “laughed” at and told her party prepared its list of candidates “a year ahead, even though, according to the law, I still had time to put my candidacy forward. President Karimov is not aware of this, I believe.”

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