INTERFAX reports that the draft laws President Islam Karimov forwarded to the parliament of Uzbekistan on November 9 will have a profound effect on the country's political and state structure.

Draft laws "On the role of political parties in renovation and democratization of state management and modernization of the country" and "On amendment of some articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan" were submitted to the lower house of the Oly Majlis.

Reports of Uzmetronom.com indicate that publication of the documents contemporizes with discussion of the future of Uzbekistan in Brussels and Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov's speech there.

The former draft law permits establishment of factions in the national parliament, and factions themselves are permitted to be in the opposition to the authorities. Prime ministers are to be nominated by the president and endorsed by the parliament. Whenever the parliament votes the candidate down, the president is empowered to repeat the nomination twice more. The president is permitted to disband the parliament after the third rejection and appoint acting prime minister.

Outwardly offering political parties additional freedom, the president retains the right to nominate the heads of regional and municipal administrations for endorsement by regional and municipal councils of people's deputies. The heads of the Tashkent administrations (municipal and regional alike) are to be appointed by the president without consultations with anyone, and that is what the suggested amendments to the Constitution are essentially about.

Uzmetronom.com points out therefore that the regime is sending the country a message a year before the presidential election that it may forget the idea of Uzbekistan's transformation into a parliamentary republic where the president is playing but nominal functions suggested by some foreign and local political scientists.