Country Profile: Uzbekistan

Electoral System: 
Suffrage is universal for individuals 18 years of age and older. All aspects of 
elections, particularly registration by parties and independent candidates, are controlled by the 
government’s Central Election Commission. An election is legally valid if more than 50 percent 
of eligible voters participate and a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes. In the 
post-Soviet era, reports of very high participation in elections and referenda have been 
considered unreliable. Parliamentary elections, which are held every five years, include runoffs if 
no candidate receives 50 percent or more in the first round. Only five parties, all pro-
government, were allowed to participate in the parliamentary elections of December 2004 and 
the runoff elections of January 2005. The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for 
December 2009. In 2002 a referendum extended the president’s term of office from five to seven 
years; the next presidential election is scheduled for December 2007, although technically 
President Karimov’s term ended in January of that year. 
Politics and Political Parties: 
In the post-Soviet era, no true opposition party has been 
permitted legal status. The two major opposition parties that developed in the late Soviet period, 
Erk (Liberty) and Birlik (Unity), have been intensely restricted. Their leaders, Muhammad Solih 
and Abdurahim Polat, respectively, operate from exile. Two other parties, the Islamic 
Renaissance Party (IRP), which advocates an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, and Adolat (Justice), 
have been refused registration since the 1990s. The opposition Ozod Dehqonlar (Free Peasants) 
Party, formed in 2003, has been similarly barred. The dominant party has been the People’s 
Democratic Party, successor to the Communist Party of Uzbekistan. The other major parties, all 
of which support the government, are the Liberal Democratic Party (formed with government 
approval in 2004), the Adolat Social Democratic Party, the Democratic National Rebirth Party, 
and the Self Sacrificers Party. Each of these parties gained at least nine seats in the Oly Majlis in 
the parliamentary elections of 2004–5. The leading vote getters were the Liberal Democratic