OSCE Centre organizes working visit to Norwegian parliamentary elections for Turkmenistan officials

ASHGABAT/OSLO, 10 September 2013 –  Three members of the Turkmenistan Central Election Commission and one representative of the Turkmen National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights learned about the electoral procedures of parliamentary elections in Norway during an OSCE-supported visit concluding in Oslo today.

The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, together with the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and the University of Oslo Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, organized the six-day visit which allowed exchange of best practices and experiences in conducting elections  between the representatives of the two OSCE participating States.

The delegation learned about the Norwegian election system, electoral procedures and e-voting, and had meetings with the Norwegian Local Government and Regional Development Ministry, which is in charge of election organization, media authority, parliament and political parties. They discussed issues such as selection and training of election commission members, nomination of candidates, access to the media and organization of election campaigns.

On Election Day , 9 September, the delegation visited a number of polling stations and Oslo City Hall to observe the voting process and the final count of votes.

“The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat welcomes the adoption of the new Electoral Code by Turkmenistan and stands ready to provide support to the host government’s efforts to further improve the election system in Turkmenistan,” said Deniz Vardon Hoca, the Human Dimension Officer of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.

“The visit will have an added value in light of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan.”