Turkmenistan - 2012 Elections
Although the constitution declares Turkmenistan to be a secular democracy and a presidential republic, the country has an authoritarian government controlled by the president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and his Democratic Party. Berdimuhamedov remained president following a February election that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights determined involved limited choice between competing political alternatives.
The OSCE’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights noted in its December 2011 Needs Assessment Mission Report that the deployment of an observation mission would not add value to the election, due to limitations on fundamental freedoms, the absence of political pluralism, and the lack of progress in bringing the country’s legal framework in line with OSCE commitments for democratic elections. The government did not invite the OSCE to send observers; however, the Commonwealth of Independent States, which the country chaired in 2012, sent a small observer mission that did not have unrestricted access to polling stations and did not release a comprehensive observation report.
The three most important human rights problems were arbitrary arrest; torture; and disregard for civil liberties, including restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and movement. Other continuing human rights problems included citizens’ inability to change their government; interference in the practice of religion; denial of due process and fair trial; arbitrary interference with privacy, home, and correspondence; discrimination and violence against women; trafficking in persons; and restrictions on the free association of workers. Officials in the security services and elsewhere in the government acted with impunity. There were no reported prosecutions of government officials for human rights abuses.
While the constitution and law prohibit such practices, security officials tortured and beat criminal suspects, prisoners, and individuals deemed critical of the government to extract confessions and as a form of punishment. According to findings in Amnesty International’s March 2012 report, submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee, methods of torture employed by security officials included “the administration of electric shocks; asphyxiation applied with a plastic bag or forcible wearing of a gas mask to which the air supply is cut; rape; forcibly administering psychotropic drugs; beating with batons, truncheons, or plastic bottles filled with water; punching; kicking; depriving the detainee of food and drink; and exposing [prisoners] to extreme cold while removing warm clothes.”
Voters in Turkmenistan headed to the polls in February 2012. They were expected to re-elect President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Five days before registration of presidential candidates ended, a law allowing opposition candidates to register came into force. The law did not affect the dominance of the president’s party. There weret numbers of candidates who are in opposition to the president, whose personalities are not of great interest to the main electorate groups. And there is the candidate who handles the country's budget, who handles administrative resources. The president felt confident that he will win enough votes to avoid a runoff.
Nearly three million Turkmen are allowed to vote, that is about half of the population. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says it will not send vote monitors to the region due to limited freedoms and lack of political competition. Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was sworn in for a second term as the president of Turkmenistan on 17 February 2012 following his election. Berdymukhamedov swept the February 12 elections with 97 percent of the vote. Seven other candidates had praised him in the run-up to the vote.
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