OSCE criticises parliamentary polls

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has criticised Sunday's parliamentary elections in Tajikistan, saying they fell short of international standards. "The whole election process did not meet the expectations for transparent and democratic elections in Tajikistan," Peter Eicher, head of the electoral observer mission from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said on Monday in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, announcing the preliminary findings of his mission. "The election process is assessed as unsatisfactory." "We were very hopeful about these polls. However, there were cases of falsification during the elections," Eicher said, process and election commissions were controlled by the authorities. The ODIHR started monitoring the election process in the country on 24 January. A group of long-term observers from the OSCE visited various regions of the former Soviet republic to see the preparations for the elections on the ground. Some 150 observers from the OSCE monitored the polls on Sunday and visited more than 600 out of the total of 3,000 polling stations in the country. According to the OSCE, one of the shortcomings was the composition of election commissions, with the majority of their members representing only state bodies. The Vienna-based organisation said that two prominent opposition leaders were barred from the polls under the pretext of criminal cases which were brought against them. "They were not convicted and thus they could have been registered as candidates," Eicher maintained. The authorities reportedly interfered with the media. Four independent media outlets were closed before the elections. A lack of information available to the public prevented voters from learning more about their candidates and thus affected their decisions. OSCE observers said that in some polling stations, voter turnout appeared to be unrealistically high, casting doubts over the reliability of the figures. They also criticised the vote-counting procedures. However, there were some positive developments, Eicher noted. The elections were peaceful and voters were able go to polling stations in safety. Tajikistan is the only country in Central Asia that saw a civil war in the 1990s, which claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people. Six political parties and many independent candidates contested the polls, a sign of pluralism, the OSCE said. Also, polling stations were provided with transparent ballot boxes. "We provided our findings to the government and they will likely make their own conclusions," Eicher said, adding that the final results of the observation mission would be announced later.