Election rules and formation of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis
Of the Republic of Uzbekistan

In accordance with the Constitution and constitutional laws and other legal acts regulating the activity of the upper chamber, the supreme legislative body of Uzbekistan consisting of 100 senators, is formed by means of electing members for a 5 year term.
«Members of the Senate are elected, in equal quantity, by 6 people from among deputies of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regions, the city of Tashkent by secret vote in appropriate joint sessions of deputies of the Djokarghi Kenes of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, representative bodies of the regions, districts and cities.
Sixteen members of the Senate are appointed by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan from among the most prominent citizens of the country, who have vast experience and special merits in science, literature, and production and other spheres of state and social life.» (Sec.2 and 3 of the Article 2 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of the Uzbekistan «On the Senate of Republic of the Uzbekistan, December 12, 2002)

It follows that in the process of forming the Senate the following institutions take part in it directly; first, regional representative bodies by means of election of senators, and second, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan by means of appointing 16 senators.
Elections of 84 members of the upper chamber are regulated by the Law «On Elections to the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan» as amended. They are conducted after the expiry of term of the corps of deputies of previous convocation.
Elections to the Senate of the Oliy Majlis are directly related to elections of deputies to bodies of the representative branch at a local level. This is a feature particular to elections of parliamentarians to the upper chamber which comes from the so-called principle of «multi-staged» nomination and differs from elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis which are conducted on the basis of universal, equal and direct balloting.
In other words deputies of the lower chamber are elected directly by the citizens in 120 electoral districts (candidates from political parties as well as independent candidates stand for election) while citizens participate in senatorial elections «indirectly» by electing deputies to local bodies of the legislative branch (the Djokarghi Kenes of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Kengashes of people’s deputies on regional, district and cities levels). It should be made clear that the election of the 120 deputies to the lower chamber of parliament in the electoral districts on a multiparty basis are conducted simultaneously with elections to local representative bodies.
Newly elected deputies of local representative bodies nominate and elect senators to the Oliy Majlis by secret voting (6 senators from Republic of Karakalpakstan, each region and the city of Tashkent) from among themselves within a one month period. It is explained by the fact that the Senate is a body of territorial representation and, accordingly, the nature and specificity of conducting elections is interdependent with regions
which nominate their representatives to the upper chamber. It should also be noted that although the majority in the Senate (84) represent regions and the Senate is a legislative body of territorial representation, there is no permission to form groups on a regional, political or other basis in the upper chamber.
Let us look more in detail at how elections to the upper chamber are conducted. First of all, it should be pointed out that a deputy of the regional body of the representative branch may be nominated as a senatorial candidate. Election legislation states that senatorial candidates must be at least 25 years old on election day. They are also required to have been permanent residents in the country for 5 years prior to election day. Elections can only be funded by the state budget.
Elections are conducted no later than one month after the end of elections to the Djokarghi Kenes of the Republic of Karakalpakstan and bodies of the representative branch at a local level in their joint sessions.
Competence of these sessions is provided by participation of no less than two thirds of the total number of deputies of all bodies of the representative branch at a local level.
The representative of the Central Election Committee which approves the Rules of elections of senators shall also be present during the elections to the Senate.
Candidates, who get the largest number of votes compared to other candidates, are considered winners provided that they receive more than 50% of the votes of deputies present at a session. In case a candidate does not get enough votes then the voting is repeated again.
Repeated voting should take place within 15 days of the first election of senators in case where:
1) Elections are declared invalid;
2) Repeated voting fails to elect a prescribed number of senators.
Within five days, the Central Election Committee registers members of Senate based on protocols of joint sessions. Within 10 days following the registration, the Central Election Committee publishes the roster of elected members of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis in the mass media.