The Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) of the Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recommended sending its mission to monitor the constitutional referendum held in Uzbekistan, Dunyo reported.
Reportedly, the NAM visited Uzbekistan on July 19-21 this year.
Based on the findings, the NAM raised the question of whether the ODIHR should organize monitoring activities for the upcoming referendum and, if necessary, recommended what type of activities would best meet the identified needs.
The representatives of the mission noted that the discussion of the draft constitutional law was extended twice and ended on August 1. It was noted that after the end of the public discussion, the constitutional commission will finalize the draft law and present a new text to the parliament chambers for approval, after which the referendum date will be fixed.
The results of the constitutional referendum are binding. In order for the referendum to be valid, the voter turnout be 50 percent and over. If more than half of them vote in favor of the changes, the bill will be approved. Voters are asked to answer "Yes" or "No" on the full set of constitutional amendments.
Referendums are regulated by the 1992 Constitution, the 1991 Referendum Law and the 2019 Electoral Code. The last amendments to the Referendum Law were made in March and June 2022, which mainly included amendments to the Election Code in 2019 and 2021, improving the efficiency of the process of resolving disputes in the referendum, introducing the requirement of neutrality of members of subcommittees, voting abroad the issuing procedure reflected a number of technical corrections.
The ODIHR NAM recommended sending a Limited Observation Mission (LROM) to monitor the constitutional referendum. In addition to the ODIHR NAM core expert team, the NAM recommended the deployment of 14 long-term observers from OSCE participating States to monitor the referendum process throughout the country.
