Elections of Uzbekistan. Presidential elections

Attempted[edit]
Erk Democratic Party (EDP)[edit]
On 26 May 2021, the unregistered and banned Erk Democratic Party (EDP) for the first time since 1991 nominated a candidate, celebrity singer Jahongir Otajonov, for the presidency at its congress.^[82] During the party nomination, around 20 estimated group of unknown persons broke into Otajonov's home of where the congress was behind held in Tashkent, shouting and insulting Otajonov.^[83] According to Otajonov himself in an interview, he stated that the incident happened unexpectedly and that the intriguers had thrown eggs around the house and had broken the video camera of blogger whom was with Otajonov that was estimated to be worth thousand dollars. Following the attacks, the Erk party accused President Mirziyoyev and the security forces on staging the incident.^[83] The event was reportedly to have been occurred subsequently at the same time with the opening of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) mission in the country.^[83] Party leader Muhammad Salih blamed the Uzbek authorities for the provocative attack, referring the unidentified disruptors as "Mirziyoyev's mob", due to his own fear of the Erk party with a commitment in losing his own reputation by the OSCE.^[83]
On 15 June 2021, the EDP's activists were summoned for questioning by the Tashkent police where presidential nominee Otajonov was interrogated for four hours. From there, he criticised the authorities' unwillingness by the law enforcement to bring charges against the disruptors during the nomination process.^[82]
On 10 July 2021, Otajonov announced that he would be withdrawing from the race after facing 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 post, 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 political pressure being placed on him.^[55]
In the aftermath of Otajonov's end in his presidential bid, the EDP published statement on 9 August 2021 to which it called for a boycott in the polls, describing it as "another show off" by Mirziyoyev with Salih not ruling out that the other contestants themselves in the race would end up casting their votes for Mirziyoyev, pointing out as other presidential candidates in past elections had done so for Islam Karimov.^[84]
Campaign[edit]