On May 1, the Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan convened a meeting during which it was announced that the results of the vote held on April 30 regarding the draft of a new constitution were invalidated in three polling stations.
CEC Chairman Zainiddin Nizamkhodzhayev said earlier that serious violations were discovered in some polling stations. Those were precinct 226 in Syrdarya district, Syrdarya region; precinct 651 in Chirchik, Tashkent Region, where the CEC found violations; and precinct 772 in Almazar district, in Tashkent, where the media reported violations.
At a meeting May 1, CEC Secretary Khudoyor Mamatov said commission members in Syrdarya precinct 226 threw ballots into a ballot box at about 19:30, violating the law. There were 2,671 voters assigned to this polling station.
In polling station 651 in Chirchik, he said, the commission members told a citizen that they had run out of ballots, while the system showed a 100% turnout as of 18:00.
At polling station 772 in Almazar district of the capital, the commission member filled in 16 ballots by ticking the “Yes” box. A video of this has circulated on the internet.
“Such actions as a member of the commission filling in several ballot papers and stuffing ballot papers into a ballot box and misreporting the number of people who have voted raise doubts about the results of voting at these polling stations”, the CEC said.
Khudoyor Mamatov pointed out that these cases do not affect the referendum’s validity.
In accordance with Article 38 of the Referendum Law, the CEC declared the results in these three polling stations invalid because the violations influenced the voting results.
According to preliminary data, turnout in the referendum was 84.54%. 90.21% of voters voted in favour of amending the constitution, while 9.35% voted against it.
