Text of report by Uzbek TV on 26th October

[Announcer] A meeting of the Central Electoral Commission's
joint council to coordinate the work of the media.
[First correspondent, over video of party leaders casting
lots] In line with Article 25 of the law on elections to the
Supreme Assembly of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the republic's
Central Electoral Commission has to give to all the parties
equal rights regarding use of the media in their party
political campaign.

[Second correspondent] This was the basic issue on the
agenda of the meeting of the joint council, which took place at
the Central Electoral Commission. Representatives from all the
[Uzbek] political parties, representative bodies of the [Uzbek]
government and independent candidates attended the meeting.
Thus the first stage of the election campaign has ended.
The second stage has already started. This stage consists of
the period of registration and the period of political
broadcasts and the election campaign which will start at the
beginning of November. The chairman of the Central Electoral
Commission, Najmiddin Komilov, stressed that the main task of
today's [26th October] meeting was to determine how the parties
were to make more ethical use of media opportunities in their
election struggle. This is a new phenomenon in the history of
the electoral system, which will give equal opportunities to
all the five political parties, to representative bodies of the
government and to independent candidates to use their allotted
time on radio, TV and in the press for their political
broadcasts and the election campaign.

The head of the press centre of the Central Electoral
Commission, Sherzod Qudratkhojayev, said that everybody would
be given 15 minutes on the first channel of Uzbek Television.
The order of priority was agreed by casting lots.
Representatives of the Vatan Taraqqiyoti [Homeland
Progress] will be the first to make a party political broadcast
. They will make their party political broadcast on 4th
November. Then independent candidates will make their political
broadcast on 5th November. Representative bodies of the
government will make their political broadcast on 6th November.
Representatives of the Adolat [Justice] Social and Democratic
Party will make their political broadcast on 7th November. The
Fidokorlar [Self-Sacrifiers] National and Democratic Party will
be on air on 8th November, the People's Democratic Party of
Uzbekistan will make their political broadcast on 9th November
and the Milliy Tiklanish [National Rebirth] Democratic Party
will make their political broadcast on 10th November.

The casting of lots on carrying out the campaign in press
was also held today. So the order will be as follows:
independent candidates will carry out their campaign first,
then the Milliy Tiklanish Democratic Party, the representative
bodies of the government, representatives of the Adolat Social
and Democratic Party, the People's Democratic Party of
Uzbekistan, the Fidokorlar National Democratic Party and the
Vatan Taraqqiyoti Party.

The chairman of the joint council, Abboskhon Usmonov
[editor-in-chief of `Khalq Sozi' and `Narodnoye Slovo'] noted
that all the parties would be given eight pages of printed text
with two-line spacing.

Amongst the issues discussed at the meeting, the
participants of the meeting were introduced to the regulations
on how to use visual aids and video clips and also on how to
set up press centres.

Source: Uzbek Television first channel, Tashkent, in Russian
1430 gmt 26 Oct 99
BBC Mon CAU 261099 VA/YD