OSCE to assess Tajikistan's election race after voting over.

28/2 Tass 133

DUSHANBE, February 28 (Itar-Tass) - Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe /OSCE/ will make public its assessment of the
parliamentary election in Tajikistan when voting and the related
procedures are over, Janec Lenarcic, the director of the OSCE's Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights /ODIHR/ said Sunday.

He arrived in Dushanbe together with a mission of OSCE observers to
watch the progress of voting.
Lenarcic said the ODIHR does not rely on the impressions of separate
people but rather on the information gathered at a big number of polling
stations because it represents a clear enough picture of the state of
democracy.
Only after all this information is processed and the election
procedures are over will the mission make appropriate conclusions, which
it will hand to the country's authorities and to newsmen.
As he spoke about the election race on the whole, Lenarcic said the
OSCE mission had reflected he complexity and deficiencies existing in
Tajikistan's electoral system in two interim reports.
Tajikistan has shortcomings in the legislative base and this was
reflected in the reports, too, he said.
Lenarcic indicated, in part, that the CEC might apply more transparent
methods to the organization of elections and referendums.
He said along with it that mission members only supervise the
correctness of elections but they do not seek out improper aspects of
voting and do not inquire into them because the OSCE staff members are
observers and not policemen.
To date, the OSCE has never recognized either parliamentary or
presidential elections in Tajikistan as the ones meeting the standards of
democracy. The fact causes natural irritation among officials and
politicians in Dushanbe.
-0-kle/gor


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next
Move to: