Uzbeks attend constitutional reform poll
By Reza Abesh Ahmadlou
Staff writer
Uzbekistan held a national reform poll on the new Constitution on Sunday. The updated law is aimed at consolidating the country’s strategic course for further reform of the society and the state, which has had a positive impact on its foreign policy, primarily in the Central Asian region.
The draft of the new Constitution reflects the serious changes that have taken place in Uzbekistan since the beginning of the major reforms that were announced by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the end of 2016.
Serious amendments were made to the draft of the new Constitution concerning human rights and freedoms, personal inviolability of citizens and their private life in criminal proceedings, and conditions of detention. In the administration of justice, the use of evidence obtained in violation of the law is not allowed.
Under the new Constitution, the rights of youths, women and children are protected by the government. Special attention is paid to the protection of the rights and interests of citizens with disabilities, as well as socially vulnerable segments of the population.
In the part concerning the economic rights of citizens, a separate article in the draft Constitution prohibits forced labor, any form of child labor. In 2021, Uzbekistan eliminated forced and child labor from the production cycle in cotton growing.
The new paragraphs in the Constitution were highlighted in the print material sent across far flung territories to educate the people about what will change after the referendum.
“The large-scale reforms being carried out in the country today marked the beginning of a new stage in our development of the era of new Uzbekistan. And today we have every reason to say that in a historically short period a completely new atmosphere has formed in the country in the political, legal, socio-economic, scientific, spiritual and cultural terms,” Mirziyoyev said.
The digitization of the electoral system makes the process most transparent in a sense that a single voter list was available to all at every polling station.
Also, over 2,500 IT experts and managers were present at the polling stations to keep the digitized system running smoothly without any disruption.
A mobile app was introduced that connected all polling stations with the central security system.
The heads of leading international organizations, as well as high-ranking representative of states including Gholamreza Nouri-Qezeljeh, the Iranian chairman of the Iran-Uzbekistan Parliamentary Friendship Group, were invited to observe the important political event.
For more than a week, 55 polling stations were opened in 39 countries, including Russia, Turkey, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Iran for Uzbeks living abroad.