Leaders of the five political parties of Uzbekistan speak at a press conference in the International Press Center of the Central Election Commission in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Monday. Photo: Yang Sheng/GT

The Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan won 43 seats in the parliament lower house election, which makes it the biggest winner, the central election commission announced on Monday, and Chinese experts said that Uzbekistan is showing its determination and confidence on its own opening-up and reform through a high-­profile and transparent election.

The International Press Center of the Central Election Commission held a briefing for representatives of international observers, domestic and foreign media on Monday. Chairman of the Central Election Commission Mirzo-Ulugbek Abdusalomov addressed the briefing.

Five officially registered political parties, the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, the National Revival Party, the People's Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party Adolat and the Ecological Party competed for 150 seats in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the lower house of the parliament.

Apart from the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, the Democratic party of Uzbekistan "Milliy Tiklanish" won 35 seats, the Social Democratic Party of Uzbekistan "Adolat" got 21, the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan won 18 and the Ecological party of Uzbekistan got 11.

The Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan is mainly formed by entrepreneurs and business persons, and the victory showed that economic development is the biggest consensus of the country, local analysts noted.

Voting for Uzbekistan's parliamentary and local council elections began at 8 am and ended 8 pm local time (03:00 GMT) around the country on Sunday. Uzbekistan will use for the first time a Unified Electronic Voter List, with more than 20.5 million voters being registered, according to the Uzbek Central Election Commission (UCEC).

Around 10,260 polling stations were set up for the elections, 55 of which were located abroad at the diplomatic missions of Uzbekistan. According to the UCEC, 13,355,911 voters, 71.1 percent of the total legal voters across the country, participated the voting until 8:00 pm on Sunday.

The Senate will be formed following the elections for the legislative chamber. The last parliamentary elections were held in 2014.

A total of 825 observers, representatives of nine international organizations and 41 foreign countries, including ­China, Russia, the US and many EU member states were invited to observe the election process in all regions of the country.

Yang Jin, an associate research fellow at the department of Russia-Eastern Europe-­Central Asia studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times that the reason why the Uzbekistan government attached so much importance over the election is that it wants to show its high approval rate among the people and the transparent democratic process to the world.

"This is the foundation for the country to kick off massive reform and opening-up strategy in the next step," Yang said.

The country has great ambition to embrace economic globalization and realize economic development through opening-up. This kind of massive strategy needs to be approved by the people, and that's why it invites so many foreign observers and media to report this election, Yang said.

After Shavkat Mirziyoyev became the Uzbek president in 2016, the country has paid a series of efforts to reform and focusing on economic development, and this election was also a chance for the government to show its achievements and prove itself to the outside world that the country is stable, peaceful, developing and the whole society has strong desire to open and reform, Yang noted.

Kuchimov Kuchimovich, general director of the Uzbekistan National News Agency, told the Global Times that Uzbekistan highly values the relationship with China and Uzbekistan wants to become China's most reliable friend and partner, especially when his country is making efforts to develop the economy.

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country and all its neighboring countries are also landlocked countries and so it is really looking forward to cooperating with China and welcomes the China-initiated Belt and Road Initiative, he said.

Uzbekistan has initiated a cooperation with other four Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan - which was like signing a "Central Asian version of Schengen Treaty," which means a foreign visitor can travel to all five Central Asian countries with a visa for any of them, he told the Global Times. 

The initiative is aimed at boosting connectivity in the region and promoting tourism. If all five countries reach consensus, the treaty could be signed as soon as 2020, Kuchimovich noted.
Newspaper headline: Uzbek LibDems retain lead