Book · July 020 citations reads 1,675 13 authors

Party went down to 11 seats.
29
 
 
The role of the new Majils (Parliament) has been conceived by the regime as helping to inform and 
manage the reform process, with stated plans to use it to increase scrutiny of legislation, budgets 
and the implementation, rather than being a strong external check and balance to it. The elections 
were used to facilitate a changing of the guard within the Majilis, to bring in new, younger faces and 
increase the proportion of women parliamentarians (rising from 16 per cent to 32 per cent in the 
new parliament).
30
 
 
Whatever the merits of this system it is certainly not something that could be reasonably described 
as democratic, nor is it automatically a step towards becoming a democracy. What comes next will 
be critical. At a press conference given for the UK media and policy community, Sodiq Safoyev, first 
deputy chairperson of the Senate, described the regime’s approach as ‘setting the legal framework 
                                                           
26
 The Electoral Commission, Introduction to registering a political party, 
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf_file/intro-registration-rp.pdf;  The Electoral Commission, UK 
Parliamentary general elections: Guidance for candidates and agents, November 2018, 
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf_file/UKPGE-Part-2a-Standing-as-an-independent-candidate.pdf; UK 
Parliamentary Candidates are required to submit a deposit of £500 (6.5 million soms) which is returned if the candidate receives five per 
cent of the vote and all candidates receive free postage for one piece of election literature (printed at the candidates expense) to go either 
addressed to every elector or unaddressed to every household in the Parliamentary Constituency.   
27
 OSCE, Uzbekistan, Parliamentary Elections, 22 December 2019: Interim Report, 
https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/uzbekistan/442093; OSCE, Uzbekistan, Parliamentary Elections, 22 December 2019: Statement of 
Preliminary Findings and Conclusions, December 2019, https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/uzbekistan/442888 
28
 Peter Leonard, Uzbekistan: Elections look livelier but choice still threadbare, Eurasianet, December 2019, 
https://eurasianet.org/uzbekistan-elections-look-livelier-but-choice-still-threadbare?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter 
29
 Eurasianet, Uzbekistan election delivers humdrum result but major expectations, December 2019, https://eurasianet.org/uzbekistan-
election-delivers-humdrum-result-but-major-expectations 
30
 OSCE, Republic of Uzbekistan: Parliamentary Elections 22 December 2019, ODIHR Election Observation Mission, Final Report, May 2020, 
https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/9/3/452170_1.pdf 

---

Spotlight on Uzbekistan 
11 
 
to allow domestic opposition to develop from the grassroots’. The idea being presented is that the 
combination of fresh blood in Parliament and the gradual opening of political space (including 
allowing public criticism of ministers, regional leaders and elements of the government’s delivery) 
would allow the system to develop into a more competitive political environment organically over 
time. However given the barriers to the registration and development of independent political 
parties, the current setup has the risk of echoing Russian ‘managed democracy’, where Potemkin 
parties have presented alternative platforms within a curated system without ever truly challenging 
the structures of power or sought to honestly compete for the presidency.  
 
There certainly seems to be no political appetite amongst the current elite for reassessing the 
relationship with diaspora-based opposition parties, such as the banned Unity (Birlik) Party and the 
Erk Democratic Party (led by Muhammad Salih who stood in the 1991 presidential election), which 
were forced into exile under Karimov. Government officials claim that these groups have no 
credibility and that bringing them into the process would be ‘artificial’. However if the regime is 
correct( as it may well be) that such groups have little to no political support within the country, then 
continuing to ban them seems pointless and potentially counterproductive, given that banning them 
makes it look like they have something to fear.