Excerpts from report by Uzbek TV on 18th October

[Presenter] The election campaign is approaching the most
crucial and intensive phase. Practically all political parties,
representative government agencies aHnd initiative groups have
determined their candidates for the forthcoming elections.
[correspondent] About 1,500 people will compete for 250
deputy mandates in the current elections. One can consider that
the process of nominating candidates has practically ended.
Although theoretically there is still time until 21st October
when the nomination of candidates ends, it is less likely that
a candidate would be able to gather the 4,000 signatures of
support. This is the number of people who must express their
written approval in favour of the candidate.

[passage omitted: the list of candidates will be published
on 4th November; the Central Electoral Commission is working on
the issues of creating equal conditions for all candidates]
In its quest for a positive outcome, the CEC is
intensively studying international experience, in particular
the experience of Great Britain, Bulgaria, Russia, Kazakhstan
and the USA. In any case, the CEC will observe the laws and
principles of democracy in everything as it has been doing up
to the present period of the election campaign.

[passage to end omitted: an interview with a doctor of
political sciences, a professor, captioned as Rasul Jumayev,
saying that candidates are people who feel responsibility for
the country's destiny]

Source: Uzbek Television first channel, Tashkent, in Russian
1430 gmt 18 Oct 99
BBC Mon CAU 181099/** KG/AM