Parliamentary Elections, 1 March 2020

Following an invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan to observe the parliamentary elections scheduled for 1 March 2020, based on the findings and conclusions of the Needs Assessment Mission deployed from 9 to 12 December 2019, and in accordance with its mandate, ODIHR has deployed an Election Assessment Mission (EAM) for these elections.

The ODIHR EAM, headed by Ambassador Eberhard Pohl, began its work in Tajikistan on 13 February. The EAM includes seven international staff, drawn from seven OSCE participating States.

The mission will assess the electoral process in terms of its compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as national legislation. Observers will, in particular, look into the legal framework for the elections, the administration of elections, conduct of the campaign, the resolution of election-related disputes, campaign finance rules, as well as media environment and media coverage of the elections.

In line with ODIHR methodology, the ODIHR EAM will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting and tabulation on election day. Mission members will, however, visit a small number of polling stations on election day.

A final report will be issued approximately eight weeks after the end of the electoral process.

The ODIHR EAM and the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe operate separately under their specific mandates.

Previous Elections

ODIHR has previously observed six elections in Tajikistan since 2000, most recently the 2015 parliamentary elections.