Text of report by Uzbek TV on 20th September

Preparations for elections to the [Uzbek] Supreme Assembly are
in full swing in our country. Our correspondent reports from
the press centre of the Central Electoral Commission [CEC].
[Correspondent] The main issue at the press centre was the
setting up of initiative groups of voters. What is an
initiative group? Who are its members?

Let us say, each citizen, a group of citizens with the
right to vote - that is, you - from an electoral district, are
going to nominate a person whom you trust to the Supreme
Assembly. For this purpose you will set up an initiative group
with a minimum of 100 members from this electoral district.
[Najmiddin Komilov, chairman of the CEC, captioned] There
are three phases in the activity of initiative groups. First is
to set up an initiative group and hold a meeting. The second
phase is to prepare the necessary documents and present them to
the electoral district commission.

[Correspondent] After the proper documents have been
presented to the electoral district commission these documents
will be considered within five days, and should these documents
meet the requirements of the law, the initiative group will be
registered.

[Komilov] At the the third phase the electoral district
commission studies these documents and reports to the CEC.

[Correspondent] After the decision has been reached to
register the initiative group, a competent member of the group
will receive the relevant certificate and signature forms.
After this, work on gathering voters' signatures will be
carried out. In line with the law, eight per cent of voters or
at least 4,000 voters in the electoral district must express
confidence in the person proposed by the initiative group, that
is, must sign the signature forms. Only in this case will this
candidate have the right to stand in the elections.
We would like to draw the attention of voters to another
point. One voter has one vote, that is, if you have signed in
favour of a proposed candidate then you should not sign in
favour of another candidate proposed by another initiative
group.

Bearing in mind that each electoral district might set up
10 or 12 initiative groups, you, the voters, should vote for
the most competent and trustworthy candidate.

Source: Uzbek Television second channel, Tashkent, in Uzbek
1400 gmt 20 Sep 99
BBC Mon CAU 200999/** VA/AM