Neighbours Invited to Observe Turkmen Polls
Neighbours Invited to Observe Turkmen Polls
Election observers from the former Soviet Union are to monitor the December 14 parliamentary polls in Turkmenistan.
The Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS, the main post-Soviet regional grouping, will send in a team on November 25 to lay the ground for the monitoring mission.
According to Vladimir Garkun, deputy executive secretary of the CIS, the main team will arrive three days before the election. It is unclear how large the observer team will be.
President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has said he would like a large contingent of international observers to monitor the election. It is not certain whether anyone outside the CIS will be invited.
When Berdymuhammedov was elected in February 2007, not even CIS monitors were present. At that point Turkmenistan was keeping the CIS at arm’s length, having downgraded its own status to that of associate member. It did not attend CIS events and was not a signatory to the grouping’s election monitoring accords.
In 2008, however, Turkmenistan has shown signs of becoming more cooperative, and inviting CIS observers to the December election may be part of this process.
As one local commentator put it, “Having a CIS observer mission serves to prop up the electoral process in the former Soviet republics, so it’s to Berdymuhammedov’s advantage to have them participate.”
The Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS, the main post-Soviet regional grouping, will send in a team on November 25 to lay the ground for the monitoring mission.
According to Vladimir Garkun, deputy executive secretary of the CIS, the main team will arrive three days before the election. It is unclear how large the observer team will be.
President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has said he would like a large contingent of international observers to monitor the election. It is not certain whether anyone outside the CIS will be invited.
When Berdymuhammedov was elected in February 2007, not even CIS monitors were present. At that point Turkmenistan was keeping the CIS at arm’s length, having downgraded its own status to that of associate member. It did not attend CIS events and was not a signatory to the grouping’s election monitoring accords.
In 2008, however, Turkmenistan has shown signs of becoming more cooperative, and inviting CIS observers to the December election may be part of this process.
As one local commentator put it, “Having a CIS observer mission serves to prop up the electoral process in the former Soviet republics, so it’s to Berdymuhammedov’s advantage to have them participate.”
