Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — On 5 September, the Central Election Commission held its regular meeting to approve the design, text, and description of electoral ballots for the elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as for regional, district, and city councils of people’s deputies.

The meeting decided to approve new ballot designs for the upcoming elections. These ballots will be in a compact format, which is expected to save at least 3 billion soums on printing costs.

Different colors will be used for the ballots depending on the type of election: light blue for single-member constituencies of the Legislative Chamber, light green for the unified electoral district, light yellow for regional and Tashkent city councils, and light gray for district and city councils. Protocols on election results will be published according to the colors of the ballots.

The introduction of the new ballot format has reduced the volume and time required for the work of precinct election commissions. Previously, vote counting took an average of 4 hours; this time has now been reduced by one hour, saving at least 11,000 hours nationwide. The number of precinct election commission members has decreased from 11 to 10, also reducing compensation expenses by 2 billion soums.

The compact size and use of different ballot colors will simplify the voting and ballot filling process for voters.

According to the resolution, the surnames, first names, and patronymics of candidates for the Legislative Chamber from single-member constituencies, as well as the protocols on vote counting and election results, will be presented in Uzbek language using Latin script. The names and symbols of political parties participating in the elections for the unified electoral district will be listed in the following order:

1. Movement of Entrepreneurs and Business People — Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan;

2. Democratic Party of Uzbekistan “Milliy Tiklanish”;

3. Ecological Party of Uzbekistan;

4. People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan;

5. Social-Democratic Party “Adolat.”

The design and text of the ballots for local council elections have also been approved. The ballots will be printed based on data provided by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Karakalpakstan and regional election commissions, taking into account the number of voters in each district.