Parliamentary Elections, 28 February 2010
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Mission at a glance
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Head of Mission: Dr. Artis Pabriks
- 17 core team members from 16 participating States, based in Dushanbe
- 20 long-term observers, deployed throughout the regions
- 150 short-term observers requested from participating States
Mission schedule
- 14 January: Mission arrives in Tajikistan
- 22 January: Deployment of long-term observers
- 26 February: Deployment of short-term observers
- 28 February: Election day
- 14 March: Possible second round
Tajikistan invited ODIHR to observe the 28 February parliamentary elections. Following a needs assessment mission, ODIHR deployed an election observation mission.
Led by Artis Pabriks, the mission commenced its work on 14 January and remained in the country until mid-March. Seventeen experts and 20 long-term observers were deployed in Dushanbe and to six regional centres.
For election-day observation, the mission joined efforts with observer delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament. On election day, some 242 observers from 36 OSCE participating States were deployed.
According to the mission's final report: "The parliamentary 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. This was despite the president’s stated aim to hold more democratic and transparent elections. In a positive development, the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) was more inclusive than in previous elections."
Previous elections
ODIHR previously deployed EOMs to Tajikistan for the 2000 and 2005 parliamentary elections, as well as for the 2006 presidential election.