At the event held by the regional hokimiyat (governorate) in cooperation with the regional department of the Mahalla charity public foundation, it was said that special attention being paid under the leadership of the country’s President to strengthening the legal basis and material and technical base of citizens’ gatherings served to further increase people’s trust in their neighbourhood.

Elections of chairmen of citizens’ gatherings and their advisers that took place in May-June this year were important in terms of further improving this local governance system.

In the elections, 304 chairmen of citizens’ gathering and 2 thousand 972 advisers for them were elected. Of these chairmen, 234 or 77 per cent were elected for the first time.

At the seminar held with the aim of helping the newly-elected chairmen to organize the work of citizens’ gatherings, speeches were made about forming councils of citizens’ gatherings and about a procedure for electing commissions for the main areas of work of citizens’ gatherings and an evaluation commission in accordance with laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On citizens’ self-government bodies” and “On electing chairmen of citizens’ gatherings (elders) and their advisers”.

At citizens’ gatherings, detailed information was given about working with letters and documents at citizens’ gatherings and about drawing up internal documents, acts and resolutions as well as legal and norm-setting documents.

Employees of the Mahalla charity public foundation, the regional and territorial branches of the independent institution for monitoring civil society formation and the regional finance department made speeches about these issues.

“Citizens’ gatherings are carrying out a large part of tasks that come within the remit of bodies of state administration, which requires the knowledge and experience of the chairmen of citizens’ gatherings to be extensive,” says A.Sattorov, the chairman of the regional department of the Mahalla charity public foundation.