As in any other state, in Uzbekistan, a small Central Asian republic, there is also a parliament. The principles of its formation are quite curious, and after reading the article, you can see this. And also find out a lot of interesting things about the Oliy Majlis (that's what it is called in Uzbek).
Bicameral parliament
Once the supreme representative body was unicameral and consisted of 250 deputies elected for five years in the territorial districts. In February 2002, a nationwide referendum was held in the country, which, with 94% support from the population, approved the introduction of a bicameral parliament in 2004. As stated, this was done to balance both regional and national interests in the parliament of Uzbekistan. The upper house is the Senate, the lower is the Legislative Assembly. The term of office of both has not changed and is five years.
The senate
According to the Constitution of the country, 100 senators are elected according to the territorial principle: six people from each of the 12 regions of Uzbekistan, as well as from the city of Tashkent and the only autonomy in the republic, Karakalpakstan. The president personally appoints the remaining 16 seats. At the same time, honorary positions are often occupied not by politicians, but by figures of science, culture and art, and even especially distinguished leading workers, who are usually well-known throughout the country. If a senior state official suddenly resigns, he automatically becomes a member of the Senate until the end of his days.
The Chairperson is elected once, by secret ballot, for the entire term of office of the upper house and may be removed from office if at least two-thirds of the Senate suddenly vote for it. In fact, he is the second person in the state, since it is the chairman who is vested with the powers of the president of Uzbekistan, if for some reason he is unable to fulfill his functions.
For four years now, Nigmatulla Tulkinovich Yuldashev, the former Minister of Justice of Uzbekistan, has held the post of chairman. By the way, it was he who, after the death of Islam Karimov, the first president of the country, performed his duties for several days in September 2016.
We add that by law a member of the Senate can not be less than twenty-five years. Moreover, at least the last five years, he must permanently reside in the country.
Legislative Assembly
The lower house of the parliament of Uzbekistan includes 150 deputies. It is interesting that only 135 of them are elected on a multi-party basis in territorial single-mandate constituencies, and 15 are representatives of the Ecological Movement, whose motto “Healthy environment - healthy person” would be nice to spread in our country. The parliamentarian of the Legislative Assembly must also be over twenty-five years old, not be a military serviceman or an employee of the National Security Service (NSS). Furthermore, he must have no outstanding or unexpunged criminal record.
Currently, five parties are represented in the lower house of the parliament of the Republic of Uzbekistan: the already mentioned "ecologists" (15 seats), liberal democrats (52), the Milliy Tiklanish party (36), the people's democrats (27) and the Adolat party (20 ) The current president of the country, Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev, was nominated for this post in 2016 by the Liberal Democratic Party. Nevertheless, in the Legislative Assembly she owns only about a third of the seats, and there is no need to talk about the constitutional majority of one party here.
The main person of the Legislative Assembly and, accordingly, the speaker of the Parliament of Uzbekistan since January 2015 is Nurdinjon Muydinhanovich Ismoilov.
Parliament status and main functions
The Parliament of Uzbekistan Oliy Majlis - the Supreme Assembly of the country, the national representative body. Its functions and powers are carried out taking into account the principle of separation of powers, within the framework of the current Constitution of Uzbekistan. The main functions of the parliament are legislative and control.
Basic powers
The Senate and the Legislative Assembly are jointly responsible for introducing legislative initiatives, including in the Constitution of the country, issues of domestic and foreign policy, and approval of the state budget.
In addition, only senators can elect members of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts, appoint or remove from their posts the prosecutor general, chairman of the National Security Council and chairman of the board of the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The Legislative Assembly is responsible mainly for procedural and socio-economic issues. Thus, the Senate is the upper house, not only in name, but also in importance and authority.
Speaker
Chairman of the Parliament of Uzbekistan Nurdinjon Ismoilov represents the People’s Democratic Party. Prior to being elected to this post, he was an adviser to the president on cooperation with the Oliy Majlis. He is 60 years old, he comes from the Namangan region, has the title of candidate of legal sciences. Each of the five vice speakers represents one of the factions in parliament.
Future of parliament
The main problem of the development of parliamentarism in Uzbekistan, as in other states, where a totalitarian regime is actually hidden behind the screen of democracy, is, firstly, the lack of a real principle of electing its composition, when each deputy must represent the interests of a particular group of citizens, and secondly, the lack of freedom of each member of parliament in the adoption of important laws or the appointment of senior officials of the republic. In other words, almost all key decisions are made by a narrow circle of people close to the president of the country, and parliamentarians only formally confirm them, performing a decorative function. That was the case under Karimov, and little has changed under the current leadership.
On December 28, 2018, the message of President Mirziyoyev to the Parliament of Uzbekistan took place. Shavkat Miromonovich, among other things, formally proposed to slightly expand the functions of the Oliy Majlis. It is proposed, for example, that deputies consider and approve (or reject, which is highly unlikely) the candidacy of not only the prime minister, but also all cabinet members. Another change should be the creation of a separate State Budget Office under parliament. According to the president’s plan, it should form and control budget execution at a much higher professional level than now. Mirziyoyev invited the leaders of both houses to discuss these innovations with the deputies.
At the end of this year, regular elections to the Oliy Majlis will be held. The deputies will be elected again for five years, and we can sincerely wish not to a stranger people that among the parliamentarians there would be as many as possible those who came there not to "serve their numbers", but to really take care of the interests of their citizens.