49. Do candidates have to report on their election campaign finances?

Article 64.

Expenditures related to the preparation and holding of elections of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be covered by the public funds. Providing financing and other material support to the candidates for deputy of the Legislative Chamber and the membership of the Senate by other means shall be prohibited. 

(Law on Elections of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 1993 available at http://www.elections.uz/ru/events/legislation/409/ accessed January 2018).

Article 6.

The expenses related to the preparation and conduct of elections of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, shall be paid from public funds of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Funding and other material support to candidates for President of the Republic of Uzbekistan at the expense of other means is prohibited. Political parties, public associations, enterprises, institutions, organizations and citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan can freely transfer their funds to conduct the election. These funds are accepted by the Central Election Commission and can be uses during the electoral campaign.

 (Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the Election of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 1991, available at http://www.elections.uz/ru/events/legislation/408/ accessed January 2018).

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

[...]

For presidential elections, parties fielding a candidate each receive an equal amount of public funding for campaign-related expenses. Campaign finance transparency is limited by the lack of a requirement for public disclosure of expenditures and pre-election reporting by contestants. Private funding to parties or candidates for campaigning is prohibited, which is an undue limitation on citizens’ ability to financially support their preferred contestant.

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).