Elections begin in Uzbekistan (photo report)

Today, October 27, Uzbekistan is holding elections for deputies to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and local councils. Polling stations opened at 08:00 local time, allowing voters to begin casting their ballots.

This election marks the first time that the Legislative Chamber elections are conducted using a mixed majority-proportional system. Under this system, constituencies are divided into single-mandate and proportional districts. Seventy-five deputies of the lower house of parliament will be elected through the majority system, where voters select individual candidates in single-mandate constituencies. The remaining 75 deputies will be elected through the proportional system, based on the votes received by political party lists.

According to the Central Election Commission, a total of 851 international observers are present at the parliamentary election, representing thirteen prominent organizations, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Organization of Turkic States, and the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Additionally, 46 observers from 24 foreign election bodies and 245 observers from 43 countries have been accredited.

Currently, 55,000 observers from political parties and more than 10,000 representatives from citizens' self-governing bodies are monitoring the elections. 

To date, 1,068 representatives from local and foreign media have also been accredited to cover the event.

Voting will continue until 20:00 local time.