1.2 Assisting the drafting and adoption of an election code In the course of assisting the efforts of the authorities of Uzbekistan to follow up on ODIHR’s recommendations, the office provided comments and assessments on draft electoral legislation, which culminated in the adoption of a new Election Code. The electoral legal framework of Uzbekistan underwent significant revision in 2019, with the adoption of a new Election Code in February 2019 and its promulgation in June 2019. The new Election Code was developed through a detailed process accompanied by substantive consultations with experts from ODIHR and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission – which included a joint legal opinion – to help make significant improvements to the text. In addition to the legal review, ODIHR provided lawmakers with examples of good practice in this field, shared the texts of similar Codes from across the OSCE region, and facilitated contact between Uzbek authorities and other international organizations active in the field of elections. The new Election Code unifies five different laws that regulate the conduct of presidential, parliamentary and local elections, and outlines guarantees of citizens’ suffrage rights. The Code also establishes the framework for activities of the Central Election Commission (CEC). The codification of several election-related laws into the unified Election Code enhances the clarity and accessibility of legislation, bringing them into line with previous ODIHR recommendations. 12 DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OSCE The codification has been largely welcomed as a positive step towards enhancing the legislation’s clarity and accessibility. The new Code includes a number of commendable changes, such as the removal of provisions for reserved seats in the lower chamber, the introduction of a maximum permissible deviation in the size of electoral districts and the establishment of a single electronic voter register. The Uzbek authorities have pledged to invite ODIHR to present the final report from the 22 December 2019 parliamentary elections and to discuss the continuation, scope and pace of electoral reform, based on ODIHR’s recommendations.