O‘zbekiston respublikasi oliy ta’lim va inovatsialar ta’lim vazirligi

The President of Uzbekistan is elected using the two-round system, with a run-off election between the two highest-placed candidates held if no candidate receives an absolute majority of the vote in the first round.^[24] The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which observed the 2016 elections, reported that the elections lacked real competition because the ruling party was in a much stronger position, and due to limitations on certain freedoms, such as the right for media to report on politics in an unrestricted manner.^[25] Other irregularities reported by the OSCE include ballot stuffing and improper proxy voting.^[14]
Candidates[edit]
Officially, a political party has the right to nominate a candidate for presidency on the condition that it is registered by the Ministry of Justice no later than four months before the day of the announcement of the start of the election campaign and six months before election date.^[26][27]
Nominations are reserved towards the highest bodies of political parties, and one party can nominate only one candidate from amongst its members or a non-partisan person. Thus, independent and non-partisan candidates cannot legally nominate themselves, and this requires becoming a member of one of the officially registered parties and nominating only with the support and approval of the leadership of these parties.^[26] This paragraph is often criticised by experts, political scientists, international observers and organizations, as well as human rights defenders, opposition figures and dissidents for systemically limiting access to any participant willing to bid for presidency.
As of June 2021, there are only five political parties officially registered in Uzbekistan which are all viewed as pro-government: Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party, Uzbekistan National Revival Democratic Party, Justice Social Democratic Party, People's Democratic Party and the Ecological Party.^[18][28]
In May 2020, Khidirnazar Allakulov expressed his desire to participate in the presidential elections, sharply criticising the results of Mirziyoyev's first term.^[43][44] In his opinion, the potential reforms in the country have been stopped and its reverse is being "tightened", the problems of poverty and unemployment have not been resolved, the fight against corruption is not yielding results, and Uzbekistan has accumulated over $25 billion in foreign debt, and a growing nepotism revolving around Mirziyoyev's family has appeared.^[43][44]
In March 2021, Allakulov initiated the creation of the opposition Truth and Progress Social Democratic Party (HTSDP).^[45] However, the party has repeatedly been denied registration by the authorities, with the official reasons being that the party's documents are not in order and that the party has not collected enough signatures.^[3][4] Despite the party testifying that they had collected 25,000 signatures, the authorities claimed that only 9,873 had been collected.^[46] The refusal to register opposition groups on account of their 'lack of signatures' is a common tactic employed by the authorities to restrict opposition.^[3][4] Significant political pressure has been placed on Allakulov and his party.^[46] Allakulov was accosted in his apartment building by a mob of people in April, and afterwards was fined for 'libel' after the crowd filed a lawsuit against him.^[46] Law enforcement officials have allegedly been holding meetings with university students to insist that they should not join new parties, specifically the opposition HTSDP and Erk parties, because they were "spreading destructive misinformation".^[46] In January 2021, Jahongir Otajonov on his Instagram page announced his interest in participating in politics by bidding for the presidency, similarly to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's fate.^[47] He later announced that he had joined the People's Interests Democratic Party, a centre-right political party that was in the process of being formed. At the founding congress of the party which was held at Otajonov's home, unknown female provocateurs broke into his house and began to behave aggressively, shouting and accusing the singer and those present of being in the drug trade in maintaining a brothel, resulting in the constituent congress of the party being put off.^[48] Subsequent efforts of the party activists received fierce opposition from the Uzbek security forces and provocateurs.^[49] After increasing political pressure and harassment on Otajonov, he left Tashkent by settling in Istanbul, Turkey, where he lived prior and did business for several years during Islam Karimov's presidency. From there, he began criticising the former and current leadership of Uzbekistan by drawing attention on the scale of corruption, nepotism and embezzlement within the country, to the depressing standard of living of ordinary citizens. Otajonov also pledged that if he came to power, then he'd end Karimov's legacy by demolishing monuments across the country dedicated to him.^[50] At the end of March 2021, a group of unknown persons visited Otajonov's office in Istanbul, threatening to "beat and punish him well".^[51]
Otajonov in early April posted join photos on Facebook with the former 1991 presidential nominee, dissident, leader of the Erk Democratic Party and the People's Movement of Uzbekistan Muhammad Salih. He also announced that he had left the People's Interests party and became a member of the unregistered and banned Erk party.^[52] After that, a video message from Otajonov's mother appeared on social media, where she pledged for him to leave his political ambitions behind and not become "a traitor to the Motherland” by cooperating with Salih in which she referred him as "the villain and enemy of the people." As a result, speculations arose that Otajonov's mother during the recording was allegedly reading from a pre-written script supposedly given by the Uzbek security forces.^[53] In May 2021, Otajnov returned to Uzbekistan where he pledged to start up activities of the banned Erk party and to contest the presidential race.^[54] While campaigning, unknown and uninvited individuals showed up at Erk party public meetings and at Otajonov's home, disturbing proceedings and calling for him to quit politics.^[3] His vehicle was also impounded by police, and when he complained about this on his Instagram page, police started an investigation into whether his comments constituted an "insult".^[3] After being attacked in the stairwell of his apartments, Otajonov was also sued after his public complaints were found to have "insulted the honour and dignity" of the attackers.^[3]
On 10 July 2021, Otajonov announced that he was withdrawing from the election after enduring numerous attacks.^[55] In a post on his Instagram page, Otajonov said that the stresses on his family were too much, commenting: "What's the point of being a president if something bad happens to them?".^[55] Two days after he published his statement, the post was removed for unknown reasons.^[55] It was not clear whether Otajonov had removed it or whether Uzbek authorities had blocked it to avoid speculation about pressure being placed on him.^[55] In any case, Otajonov's party Erk has as of yet still been denied official registration by the Uzbek authorities, with the official reason given for this being that the party's documents were "incomplete" or that not all of its signatures were valid.^[4] This is a commonly used tactic for the authorities to repress political opposition.^[3]