STAGE ONE OF TURKMENISTAN'S NEW ETRAP ELECTIONS

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 001210 SIPDIS SENSITIVE; SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN (PERRY),SCA/PPD, EUR/ACE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ETRD TX TNGD KPAO ECON SUBJECT: STAGE ONE OF TURKMENISTAN'S NEW ETRAP ELECTIONS SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (U) The initial stages of Turkmenistan's first ever etrap and city halk maslahaty (peoples council) elections suggest a process that, while perhaps more a theatrical exercise than a substantive political process, is progressive in tone and provides a snapshot of grassroots level political expectations in Turkmenistan. Emboff met on November 2 with Mary Welayat's deputy hakim, and regional and etrap/city level election commissions, to observe a candidate nomination meeting and the candidate registration process. (Note: November 2 was the last day for candidate nominations for the December 3 elections. End Note.) While government officials appeared well-versed in the law and election regulations, the nominations meeting revealed the public's and government officials' lack of understanding of the purpose of these elections and suggested that the process has been rigged. End Summary. MEETING AT HAKIMLIK HEADQUARTERS -------------- ¶2. (U) The energetic Deputy Hakim of Mary Welayat Shirin Toychiyevna Ahmedova directed three tightly choreographed official meetings that prevented substantive interaction between Emboff and participants. Ahmedova, the chair of the regional election committee, presided over an initial meeting at the hakimlik headquarters. Assembled there were the eleven regional election committee members, including representatives of the hakimlik, local branch of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, Youth Union, Women's Union and Labor Union, Mary Textile Factory, education department and a local school. A lawyer by training, Ahmedova hit Emboff with a barrage of facts, figures and colorful anecdotes in a focused effort to prove her thesis that Turkmenistan "has always had democracy" and the democratic urge though this is the first time locals have had the right to elect their city and etrap Halk Maslahatys (People's Councils). (Note: Despite her insistence that Turkmenistan needed no tutelage on democracy from foreigners, Ahmedova later in the day suggested to Emboff that the Embassy should sponsor a training program in the United States for Turkmen officials to learn about the elections process in the United States. End Note.) MARY'S ACTIVE CITIZENRY -------------- ¶3. (U) Following Ahmedova's "little lecture," Emboff attempted to clarify some areas of the elections law and to get a sense of the issues of importance to local citizens in this election. Ahmedova stated that candidates must be nominated by no fewer than 100 individuals in the case of non-organization nominations, and that each individual registered at the nomination meeting to ensure participant minimums and that participants came from the district for which they are making a nomination. Official groups are not held to the 100 participant minimum for a nomination meeting; rather their minimum is a quorum of organization members. (Note: Ahmedova did not address whether it was possible that an organization with a quorum of less than 100 people might legally nominate a candidate. End Note.) Meetings organized by public associations are allowed to produce up to 10 candidate nominations, whereas meetings organized by "groups of citizens" may only produce one nomination. ¶4. (U) In response to Emboff's question about absentee ballots, Ahmedova stated that there was no allowance for absentee voting during the nominations process, but that it was available for the December 3 election. ¶5. (U) Organizations can gather together local citizens regardless of their organizational or professional affiliation. In the case of Mary Welayat, citizens' meetings produced far more candidates for the elections (560) than did meetings organized by social enterprises (515). Among social enterprises, labor unions nominated 147 candidates, followed by the Democratic Party (143),Youth Union (85),Women's union (84),and Veteran's Union (56). ¶6. (U) In terms of candidate selection, Ahmedova stated that all nominees would publicize their platforms in the local media and in public meetings, and that a citizen's party was irrelevant in the candidate selection process. At the nominations meeting later in the day, nominators and attestants dwelled on candidates' personal qualities rather than platforms. Ahmedova speculated that citizens would be most concerned about public welfare, the cotton harvest, the textile industry, creating jobs, care for remote settlements, and accessibility of schools and healthcare. NOMINATIONS MEETING: SOMETHING SLIGHTLY OFF -------------- ¶7. (U) In the afternoon, Ahmedova led Emboff and several of her election committee colleagues to a nominations meeting in Mary Etrap organized by the local branch of the national labor union; this representative was also chairing the meeting. The official delegation sat in the front row of a room of exactly 100 locals, according to the meeting's chairman. Ahmedova said at the morning meeting that a nominating meeting was not legal until and unless the organizers provided the elections commission with a list of meeting participants that included name, date of birth and propiska (place of legal residence). Emboff did not see signs of participant registration but the start of the meeting had clearly been delayed until Ahmedova and mission representatives arrived, suggesting that the participants had been assembled a while before. ¶8. (U) One by one, the chairman invited to the front podium individuals nominating or attesting to the character of nominees. It was unclear in the first few cases whether those invited to the front had waved or in some other way indicated that they wished to be called; it appeared that their names had been predetermined. Reaching the maximum number of allowed candidates for a meeting initiated by a social enterprise, 10 candidates were nominated, one for each of the etrap's ten precincts, out of 14 considered candidates. Thus in four cases the audience was called upon to vote for their preferred candidate. Participants were to vote by raising their hand; a local official counted the votes and the chairman urged all present to vote once for each candidate. There was no attempt to divide voting participants by district during this process, although nominees were nominated for a specific district. Thus citizens effectively had the right to vote for candidates in any district in their etrap. ¶9. (U) The majority of those nominating, attesting, and nominated were either educators or medical professionals, a fact Ahmedova noted to Emboff, explaining that "doctors and teachers are the elite" and therefore more likely to be aware of and participate in the elections process. In many cases, a subordinate nominated or endorsed his or her supervisor, such as a nurse at the local clinic nominating the head doctor, or a teacher nominating her principle. Of the nominees, four were archyns (village council chiefs),one a district labor union chief, three were school or hospital directors, and one was a doctor. In the case of the contested nominations, there was a significant difference in the professional rank of the candidates, such as a nurse against a doctor, or an archyn against a local technician, making the "best choice" obvious to the participants. CEREMONIAL REGISTRATION OF CANDIDATES -------------- ¶10. (U). Also on November 2, Emboff traveled to Murgap Etrap to observe a ceremonial process by which candidates were registered. The regional representative of the National Democratic Party led Emboff into a small room in the Murgap Etrap Hakimlik office where the local elections commission and five local candidates-for-registration were already seated and waiting. The chairman of the local election commission read out biodata and information about the circumstances of nomination of each of the seated candidates, and invited each to be registered as a candidate for his or her district. The chairman stated that each of the forty etrap halk maslahaty seats to be contested in the December 3 elections would be fought between the minimum two candidates, but that in three districts a race would occur between three candidates. COMMENT -------------- ¶11. (U) Despite the tight performance of November 2, technical ambiguities remained. Among post's unanswered questions is a better definition of the purpose of the local halk maslahatys: while the national-level body acts as a legislature, the local bodies appear to be executive. ¶12. (U) Beyond the technical elements, the process bore the marks of a staged performance. Emboff subsequently heard that Ashgabat teachers were gathered in mid-November by their directors, assigned fake names and addresses and told to attend a candidate rally organized by the city government. As far as post knows, the event was organized only among and for the local citizenry, rather than for a visiting foreign observer. One teacher was assigned the fake profession of plumber, perhaps to suggest that the "common man" also takes part in the elections. Despite evidence of host government pressure, it is possible that the process may have the long-term benefit of educating participants about democratic electoral processes. The presence of Emboff at the events November 2 seemed to puzzle local participants, suggesting that they could either view embassy interest as additional pressure to hew to the official line at an official event, or as cause to wonder why a western government takes interest in elections in Turkmenistan. End Comment. BRUSH