CENTRAL COMMISSION FOR HOLDING ELECTIONS AND REFERENDUMS IN TURKMENISTAN

The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda has held a meeting with the Chairman of the Executive Committee - Executive Secretary of the CIS Sergey Lebedev, who arrived in Ashgabat as the head of the CIS Observation Mission for the elections of the President of Turkmenistan.

The discussion centered on questions of activity of the CIS Observation Mission, which included more than 70 representatives of the Commonwealth countries - members of parliament, prominent public figures, diplomats, and representatives of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS member states, Parliamentary Assembly of Belarus and Russia, and members of the CIS Executive Committee.

As has been noted at the meeting, the Turkmen electoral legislation has undergone significant changes in the direction of greater openness, transparency, democracy and full compliance with universally recognized norms of international law over the years. For the first time the right to nominate candidates for the President has been used by three political parties: the Democratic Party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Agrarian Party. Another six candidates have been nominated by initiative groups of citizens.

All candidates were given equal opportunity to organize meetings with voters, appearances on TV, radio and in printed media. Necessary conditions have been created for national and international observers, which indicates the openness and transparency of the electoral process.

While monitoring the elections, the CIS observers have held a series of meetings, including meetings with the leadership of the Central Election Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, the trustees of a number of candidates, and got acquainted with the activity of precinct election commissions in Ahal, Dashoguz, Lebap and Ashgabat. On election day, they are planning to visit polling stations to observe the voting process and the counting of votes.

In general, the election campaign goes on in a quiet atmosphere, in the spirit of open competition, in the correct form and at a high organizational level, Lebedev stated, noting that the final conclusions and evaluation by the mission of CIS observers will be presented in the final document on the monitoring of elections.