TASHKENT, Uzbekistan
The results of Uzbekistan's parliamentary elections were announced Monday that saw four pro-president parties taking the lead.
Central Election Commission Chairman Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov said 113 representatives from four parties that supported President Islam Karimov's policies were elected to the parliament.
Abdusalomov said 47 members were elected from the Liberal Democratic Party, 28 from the Democratic Party Milliy Tiklanish, 21 from People's Democratic Party and 17 from the Social Democratic Party Adolat.
Elections will be repeated in Uzbekistan’s 22 constituencies because none of the candidates reached the required number of votes, the commissioner said.
The parties were competing to fill 135 seats. The remaining 15 seats will automatically go to the Ecological Movement.
Uzbekistan's Supreme Assembly has 150 members in the legislative chamber, which is elected for five-year terms and 100 members in the Senate, where 84 members are elected at the sessions of district, regional and city deputies, and 16 members are appointed by the president.
Authorities sent out text messages encouraging people to vote in the elections that began Sunday.
Karimov, 76, has been in power for two decades since the fall of the Soviet Union. He won a further seven-year term in 2007. The presidential election is scheduled for next March.
Uzbekistan, with a population of more than 30 million people, is a state dominated by supporters of the president. Opposition parties were allowed, but were considered to have no real chance of gaining power.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe had deployed an election observation mission after a formal invitation from the country's foreign ministry. There were more than 300 observers from 40 countries.
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