Foreign Observers for Turkmen Polls

A team of United Nations election monitors arrives in Ashgabat on December 12 to observe the parliamentary polls scheduled to take place two days later.



Foreign election observers have never attended Turkmen parliamentary elections, of which there have been three in since the country became independent in 1991. Under the late president Saparmurat Niazov, the only election monitors were domestic ones, hand-picked from government-affiliated organisations.



Current president Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov, elected in 2007, has said the parliamentary election should be conducted “in the spirit of democracy”, with full transparency, a choice of candidates, and international observers on the ground.



The Commonwealth of Independent States and the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights already have monitors in the country, observing the election campaign.



NBCentralAsia observers say that Ashgabat has taken a step forward by inviting foreign observers and showing it is prepared to swallow some criticism of the electoral process. But they say there are still huge problems in Turkmenistan – civil liberties are trampled on, the election candidates are regime loyalists, and the whole electoral process is being tightly controlled.



“If the observers see… how the authorities try to prevent them from having contact with local people, they will realise which things are true and which are propaganda,” said one local commentator.