On 13 March Chairman of Turkmenistan’s Central Election Commission Gulmyrat Muradov gave a briefing of the outcome of the early Presidential election, Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry reports.
The official pointed out that 2726 national observers and 75 international observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, the Organization of Turkic States, as well as from a number of countries had observed the course of the elections.
A total of 3.362.052 registered voters cast their ballots at 2.577 polling stations with a turnout of 97,17%.
In order to achieve such a result, on average of 1304 voters needed to cast their ballots at each polling station, including rural stations during the 12 hours when they were open, i.e. 108 voters per hour or two per minute throughout the day.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” who visited two polling stations in Ashgabat at midday reported low civic turnout.
Judging by voters’ lists, the number of voters who had cast their ballots was about 10% despite the official data from the Central Election Commission that by 1 p.m.
almost 72% voters had cast their ballots, i.e. in the first six hours the voting rate was alleged to be 2,7 persons a minute.
The results of the elections will be announced today, on 14 March.
At the briefing held on 13 March international observers representing the CIS Observer mission, the Organization of Turkic States and SCO stated that “the election in Turkmenistan were held successfully, in an organized manner, with many alternative candidates, under conditions of transparency and openness, with high voter turnout”, – the news outlet “Turkmenistan: Golden Age” reports.
As regards other organizations, on 8 March the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) published a report which recommended to not deploy an observer mission to Turkmenistan.
The constrained time frame prior to the election, combined with the obligation to follow a 14-day COVID-19 quarantine upon entry to Turkmenistan, made an ODIHR observation activity non feasible.
This decision is also related to the fact that the authorities have not engaged in follow-up to ODIHR recommendations and none of the latest legal amendments appear to address previous recommendations, in particular those related to political pluralism and the exercise of fundamental human rights.
In addition, the report also mentions that unreasonable criteria regarding the length of residency and employment of candidates, as well as language proficiency requirements are contrary to international standards.The post Elections: no violations identified Observers from the CIS, SCO and OIC; OSCE declined to send an observation mission first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.