President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at a meeting with MPs on March 6, proposed switching to a mixed electoral system to enhance the role of political parties, the MP from People's Democratic Party Ulugbek Inoyatov announced during the March 9 session of the Legislative Chamber.
The mixed system includes proportional and majority systems. Part of the mandates is distributed according to the proportional system (according to party lists), and the other part according to the majoritarian system (for candidate vote).
“The transition to a mixed electoral system will serve to increase the influence of political parties. Based on this, we wanted to know your opinion on the definition in Article 92 that the Legislative Chamber shall be formed based on the mixed electoral system,” Ulugbek Inoyatov said.
The Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Judicial-Legal Affairs Committee, MP Jahongir Shirinov, said that the proposed version of the Constitution does not specifically define the electoral system, but this does not prevent holding elections under a mixed system.
According to him, in this norm there is a reference “according to the legislation”, that is, according to the Electoral Code. “In the Electoral Code, we can specify whether it is a majoritarian or proportional system. I fully support your proposal,” he said.
Speaker of the Legislative Chamber Nurdinjon Ismailov proposed to consider this proposal and make a decision on the inclusion or refusal to include this provision.
It is worth noting that the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in March 2022 proposed to introduce a mixed electoral system in his country. The upcoming elections (March 19) to the parliament and maslikhats will be held according to this system. 70% of the deputies of the Mazhilis will be elected according to the proportional system of party lists, and 30% - according to the majority system. At the level of regional maslikhats and maslikhats of cities of republican significance, deputy corps will be formed at a ratio of 50% to 50%. Regional maslikhats will be completely elected by the majority system.
