MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. No violations were reported during Sunday’s early presidential election in Uzbekistan, deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house) Vladislav Davankov told TASS.
"We registered not a single violation. I was in Tashkent, in the Tashkent Region, at two polling stations," he said over the phone.
According to the senior Russian lawmaker, a lot of people came to cast their votes in the morning and in the evening. "We saw a high turnout. We are working on a statement on the results right now. We registered no violations and I think the election is valid," he stressed.
The voting began at 8:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. Moscow time) and ended at 8:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. Moscow time).
According to the Central Election Commission, the voter turnout at 5:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. Moscow time) was 69.85%
A total of 800 foreign observers, representing several dozens of countries and international organizations, have been accredited to monitor the polls, as well as around 1,500 domestic and foreign journalists.
In accordance with Uzbekistan’s electoral law, a presidential candidate should be nominated by a political party, registered no later than six months before the election date. Currently, the republic has five registered parties.
Incumbent President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was nominated by the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party (UzLiDeP). The National Revival Democratic Party (Milliy Tiklanish) also supported his candidacy. The People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan and the Ecological Party nominated their leaders, Ulugbek Inoyatov and Abdushukur Hamzayev, respectively. First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan Robaxon Maxmudova has the support of the Justice Social Democratic Party (Adolat).