Uzbekistan: Early Presidential Election, Sunday 4 December, 2016

I am grateful to Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office for selecting me once again as a UK-seconded Observer to observe elections in Uzbekistan.

This was my third time in Uzbekistan as an observer with an OSCE-ODIHR Election Observation Mission. On previous occasions I was a Long Term Observer in 2014 (based in Samarkand) and in 2015 (based in Karakalpakstan).

Tamerlane (Timur the Lame, owing to a leg injury), central Tashkent

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This time I was a Short Term Observer, deployed with my team-mate, Zhandos (Kazakhstan), to our base in Termez on the border with Afghanistan, .

TERMEZ, SURXONDARYO DISTRICT

Termez and surrounding areas, bordering Afghanistan

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BOYSUN

Mostly we observed preparations and voting in towns and villages in the Boysun area, the mountainous area to the north of Termez (at heights where oxygen was in lower supply than usual, mostly diminishing muscle strength while walking uphill, and making the lungs and work faster and deeper).

A hollowed-out tree used as a shelter, a school, and a place for prayer

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Zhandos outside a hollowed-out tree used as a shelter, a school, and a place for prayer

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A hollowed-out tree used as a shelter, a school, and a place for prayer

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A hollowed-out tree used as a shelter, a school, and a place for prayer

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A hollowed-out tree used as a shelter, a school, and a place for prayer

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A hollowed-out tree used as a shelter, a school, and a place for prayer

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TASHKENT BY NIGHT

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to be continued