In the republican press centre for coverage of the elections of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, a meeting took place on 28 November 2016 between the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, M.Abdusalomov, and representatives of Russian media accredited for coverage of the country’s presidential elections.

The chairman of the Central Electoral Commission familiarized the journalists with the work being carried out by electoral commissions within the framework of the implementation of the main events programme for the preparation and conduct of the presidential elections of 4 December this year.

It was said during the meeting that the institution of presidency plays a key role in the system of state administration of Uzbekistan. As enshrined in the country’s Constitution, President is the head of state and ensures the coordinated functioning and cooperation of the bodies of state administration. President acts as a guarantor of the observance of rights and liberties as well as the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Changes and additions made in December 2015 to the legislation on presidential elections of the Republic of Uzbekistan are directed towards further improving the electoral practice, creating the necessary conditions for citizens’ free participation in elections, wide and equal conditions for political parties and presidential candidates during election campaigns in accordance with principles of fairness, openness and transparency.

During the conversation, it was emphasized that with the aim of ensuring the openness of electoral processes and providing journalists with access to official information about the election campaign, there are the republican press centre and the press centres of district electoral commissions functioning in the country. To date, they have conducted about 100 press conferences and briefings on important stages of the election campaign. The Central Electoral Commission and district electoral commissions have already accredited 1 thousand 306 representatives of local and foreign mass media.

Since the day of the announcement of the election campaign, 15 thousand 845 reports have been published in local and foreign mass media.

During the meeting, answers were given to questions that were of interest to the mass media representatives.