DUSHANBE, February 3, 2015, Asia-Plus — On Tuesday February 3, Mr. Paul Gredin, deputy head of an election observation mission (EOM) deployed by the OSCE”s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Tajikistan to observe the March 1 parliamentary elections and Ms. Darya Poprotska, political analyst, OSCE/ODIHR EOM visited the head office of the Tajik ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Dushanbe.
“They got acquainted with activities of the PDP central election campaign staff, Usmon Soliyev, the head of the PDP public relations department, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
During a meeting with PDP first deputy Saidmurod Fattohzoda, the OSCE/ODIHR EOM members reportedly noted that 150 short-term observers from the OSCE participating States would observe voting in Tajikistan.
The OSCE/ODIHR EOM, headed by Miklos Haraszti (Hungary), consists of 14 international experts based in Dushanbe. In addition, 16 long-term observers have been deployed throughout the country.
The OSCE/ODIHR EOM will observe the elections for their compliance with OSCE commitments, other international obligations and standards for democratic elections and with national legislation. Observers will closely monitor the candidate and voter registration, campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant governmental bodies, election-related legislation and its implementation, the media environment and the resolution of election-related disputes. As part of the observation, the mission will also monitor the media coverage of the campaign.
The OSCE/ODIHR has requested participating States to second one hundred fifty (150) short-term observers (STOs) to observe voting, counting and the tabulation of results. The short-term observers will be deployed throughout the country in multinational teams of two to monitor the opening of polling stations, the voting, the counting of ballots, and the tabulation of results.
The day after the elections, ODIHR, together with its parliamentary partners, will issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions at a press conference. A final report on the observation of the entire electoral process will be issued approximately eight weeks after the end of the observation mission.
The OSCE/ODIHR has observed five elections in Tajikistan. The Election Observation Mission for the most recent parliamentary elections in 2010 concluded that “the elections failed to meet many key OSCE commitments contained in the OSCE 1990 Copenhagen Document and other international standards for democratic elections. Neither was domestic legislation fully respected. Notable shortcomings occurred regarding respect of legal provisions on complaints and the law was inconsistently applied with regard to campaign regulations. Serious irregularities took place on election day, including a high incidence of observed proxy voting.”
