TASHKENT, December 22. /TASS/. Observers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have characterized Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan as democratic.

The citizens of the Central Asian republic have elected 135 deputies of the country’s lower house of parliament out of over 500 candidates nominated by four political parties. The voter turnout exceeded 88%, Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission said.

The preliminary results are to be published at 1 p.m. Moscow time (1000 GMT).

Sergey Lebedev, who heads the observer mission of the CIS, a loose alliance of former Soviet states, said the elections were open and free. “The mission believes that the elections were held in line with Uzbekistan’s constitution, the republic’s legislation and the generally recognized rules of conducting democratic elections,” he stressed.

“All the conditions were created for the observers,” he said.

The observer mission from the SCO, which comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, said the elections were transparent and democratic.

The vote was also monitored by the representatives of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Association of World Election Bodies, as well as observers from more than 50 countries of Asia, Europe, Africa and America. They also found no violations during the vote.