Two rounds of parliamentary elections took place in Uzbekistan on December 27, 2009, and January 10, 2010. About 87.8 percent of the electorate voted in the first round, and 80 percent in the second. President Islam Karimov stated that these elections were “significantly different” from previous polls. In line with the President, official media reports that “the elections were obvious proof of President Islam Karimov’s effective initiation of transition from strong state to strong society.” The results of the elections, however, did not show much progress. In terms of changes, it should be noted that the representation of political parties in the lower chamber increased from 120 to 135 deputies, setting aside 15 seats to the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan, and totaling 150 deputies. The decision to allocate 15 seats to the Movement was explained by the increasing importance of environmental issues, the struggle for improvement of environmental conditions, people’s health, etc. These issues were considered vital for all layers of society, regardless of their political views. The other 135 deputies were elected on a multi-party basis, i.e. only those who gained more than 50 percent of the votes of the active electorate. It should also be emphasized that the practice of candidate nomination by initiative groups of voters was abolished. The results of the elections, as announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov, were as follows: 53 deputies from the Liberal-Democratic party of Uzbekistan, 32 from the National-democratic Party of Uzbekistan, 31 from the democratic party of Uzbekistan “Milliy Tiklanish”, 19 from the Social-democratic party of Uzbekistan “Adolat”, and 15 from the “Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan”. The results indicate an improved gender balance as out of 150 deputies, 33 were women. They also indicate a degree of satisfaction with the performance or loyalty of the electorate to some deputies as 47 of the winning candidates were former deputies. Furthermore, Mr. Abdusalomov stated that 34 of the elected deputies are lawyers and 37 are economists, representing a structure that reflects upon the objectives of the lower chamber. In spite of the variety of parties represented, there is still no opposition in Uzbekistan as such, and all the parties are pro-governmental. Thus, the most important component of democratic elections was still missing in the Uzbek parliamentary elections. Mr. Abdusalomov reported that the CEC did not record any serious violations of election conduct. He also noted that the elections were monitored by more than 270 observers from 36 states and four international organizations like the OSCE, the Executive Committee of the CIS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as over 60,000 observers and authorized representatives of the political parties that nominated their candidates. Thus, Uzbek mass media claimed that “the publicity and openness of the elections are ensured by the presence of observers”. The observers’ capability to evaluate the elections, however, is quite controversial. For instance, the head of the CIS observers’ mission Sergey Lebedev reported that “the election process was conducted in an organized way and held high standards – not only in the center, but also in the regions”. He also noted that the elections demonstrated “political maturity”. This view sharply contrasted with the OSCE representatives, who declined Uzbekistan’s invitation to observe its parliamentary elections, since “the basic freedoms in the country are still limited, the existing political spectrum does not give the electorate opportunities for a genuine choice among the competing political alternatives, the previous key recommendations of the OSCE remain incomplete, and there is no progress in putting the existing legal system in accordance with the OSCE rules”. The CEC representatives reported quite high electoral turnover in both rounds. However, these numbers are unconvincing to many experts, as some of the voters reported they were not asked for their identification documents, or were allowed to cast multiple votes; one woman reported getting only one invitation letter to vote for her whole family. Thus, the elections in Uzbekistan still can hardly be called transparent and fair.