Start date announced for the new “Open Budget” season

Starting from February 1 of this year, the first season of the 2026 “Initiative Budget” process will begin under the slogan “New Opportunities for the Initiative of the People.” This was reported by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

It was noted that this season marks the tenth — anniversary — season since the introduction of the “Initiative Budget” process.

The stages of the season are as follows:

– February 1–20: submission of project proposals;
– February 21–March 7: selection of projects;
– March 8–10: promotion phase;
– March 11–20: voting phase;
– March 21–31: announcement of additional winning projects.

In addition, based on the results of the traditional voting phase, the winning projects will be announced on March 21, the Navruz holiday.

For reference, since March 2024, the “one citizen – one vote” system has been introduced in the initiative budgeting process in order to ensure a healthy competitive environment during voting. Through cooperation with the Digital Government Project Management Center, a system for identifying citizens during the voting process and accepting only one vote per citizen has been implemented.