57. What power is granted to the institution(s) responsible for examining reports and/or investigating violations?

IX. CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Political parties are required to publish annual reports on their income, expenditures and assets as well as to submit them to the Chamber of Accounts and the Ministry of Justice. The oversight authorities’ conclusions are not published. Both the conclusions and party annual reports are submitted to the Legislative Chamber of parliament, which reviews them in a public session in the presence of invited media and interested organizations. Parties are required to publish their campaign finance income in party newspapers and on the party website within one month following the publication of election results. Parties are also required to submit to the CEC, within 20 days following the publication of results, reports on their campaign expenditures in a prescribed template, but are not required to publish these reports. The CEC has to submit financial information on the cost of administering the election and campaign expenditures to the Chamber of Accounts within 50 days of the publication of results. The lack of a requirement of parties to publish their expenditures and the CEC and the Chamber of Accounts to publish their conclusions undermines the transparency of campaign finance. To enhance transparency, consideration should be given to introducing legal requirements for periodic, timely and transparent reporting on campaign income and expenditures, including prior to election day. In addition, oversight authorities should be required to publish their conclusions. Effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions for breach of campaign finance regulations could be introduced.

(OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report, Republic of Uzbekistan, Early Presidential Election, 4 December 2016, available at http://www.osce.org/office-for-democratic-institutions-and-human-rights/elections/uzbekistan/306451?download=true accessed January 2018).  

IX. CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Political parties are required to submit annual financial reports to the relevant financial authorities, tax inspectorates, Chamber of Accounts, and the MoJ. Additionally, political parties are required to disclose their campaign expenses to the CEC within 20 days of the announcement of results. Annual reports together with the statements from the CEC, Chamber of Accounts and the MoJ on parties’ financial incomes and expenses during parliamentary election campaigns are presented to the lower chamber of parliament in the presence of the media. While these reports are supposed to be published by political parties, there is no clarity in the law with regard to the mode and timeframes for their publication. In accordance with the Code of Administrative Responsibility, violations of political finance regulations are punishable by fines. Consideration should be given to amend the legal framework to ensure that financial reports of political parties clearly distinguish expenditures by the party and individual candidates. To further transparency, it is recommended that such reports be made publicly available, including on the Internet, in a timely manner and contain enough detail to be useful and understandable to the general public.

(OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission Final Report, Republic of Uzbekistan, Parliamentary Elections, 21 December 2014, available at http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/uzbekistan/142576?download=true accessed January 2018).