Turkmenistan - 2017 Elections
Residents of Turkmenistan elect the president for a term of seven years. The incumbent President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, was completing his second term in the office. A total of nine people stood for election in 2017, three of them for the first time in the modern history of Turkmenistan put forward by political parties. Democratic Party was represented Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs by Chairman of the Joint Stock Commercial Bank "Rysgal", the deputy of the Mejlis (Parliament) Bekmyrat Atalyev, Agrarian by the chairman of the Mary velayat (regional) Committee of this organization Durdygylych Orazov.
Although the constitution and law prohibit mistreatment, in its January 2017 report (the latest available) the UN Committee against Torture noted its concern at “consistent allegations of widespread torture and ill-treatment, including severe beatings, of persons deprived of their liberty, especially at the moment of apprehension and during pretrial detention, mainly in order to extract confessions.”
In the 2017 presidential election, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov won 97.69 percent of the vote. The government invited an election assessment mission team composed of representatives of the OSCE and the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Commonwealth of Independent States Executive Committee, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to observe the election. According to the OSCE/ODIHR team, “The presidential election took place in a strictly controlled political environment. The predominant position of the incumbent and the lack of genuine opposition and meaningful pluralism limited voters’ choice. The lack of clear regulations for key aspects of the process had a negative impact on the administration of the election, especially at lower levels.”
The initiative group of citizens to participate in the elections put forward six candidates: Deputy governor (head) of the Mary velayat Jumanazar Annan, the Director Seydi oil refinery, the deputy of the Mejlis of Ramadan Durdyyev, deputy governor of Dashoguz province Meretdurdy Gurbanov, head of the Directorate of Economy and Development of Akhal province Serdar Dzhelilov, Director General of the production association "Garabogazsulfat" State concern "Turkmenhimiya" Suleiman Nurnepesov and deputy chairman of the State association of food industry Maksat Annanepesov.
But the country still has no real opposition parties and that political dissenters are routinely imprisoned or placed in psychiatric hospitals.
News and information services are strictly controlled and monopolized by the state, and access to information is limited. There are no private or independent electronic media. There are seven nationwide state television channels, including a music channel, and four state radio stations. In addition, some 40 newspapers are in circulation.
All of the candidates were granted free of charge and on equal terms airtime on the main TV channels and printed on the pages of the site national, regional and metropolitan newspapers. Each of the candidates could use to present their programs of 370 minutes of airtime on TV "Altyn Asyr", "Turkmenistan", "Miras" and "Yashlyk", as well as an additional 225 minutes of four channels. At the same time President Berdymukhamedov gave his rivals airtime.
But state media gave little coverage to the other eight candidates' election campaigns, occasionally showing brief clips of meetings with voters. Berdymukhammedov, on the other hand, enjoyed blanket media coverage in frequent appearances in cities and towns across the sprawling, sparsely populated nation of 5.3 million.
During the voting on the election of the President of Turkmenistan on 12 February 2017, the representatives of the OSCE, CIS, SCO, UN and OIC, appear in the list of observers from Turkey, Iran, UAE, Afghanistan, China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Austria and the USA. Turkmenistan for the election built about 10 thousand white with gold ornament prefabricated cabins. The design of the cubicles provide a a cover, and a door. Inside pasted detailed instructions for voting, procured replacement handles. "At 17:00 local time (15:00 MSK) in the elections of President of Turkmenistan voted 3 million 40 thousand 779 people or 94.17% of those included in the electoral lists" said the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CEC). The voter lists made 3,223,455 people.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, the authoritarian president of gas-rich Turkmenistan, secured a third term in office by winning 97.69 percent of the vote in the February 12 election, according to the Central Election Commission. The commission put the turnout at more than 97 percent of eligible voters.
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