TURKMENISTAN: GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES REJECT

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 000827 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM OSCE TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES REJECT ODIHR ASSESSMENT OF OLD ELECTION LAWS Classified By: CDA Richard E. Hoagland: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Local OSCE Human Dimension Officer Benjamin Moreau told PolOff June 25 that OSCE had recently held a meeting with Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Director Shirin Akhmedova and other government officials to discuss Turkmenistan,s view of the draft election law assessment that the OSCE's Office for Democratic Initiatives and Human Rights (ODIHR) completed in April. Moreau said that OSCE had expected to hold a discussion on the draft to determine how ODIHR might be able to assist the government in finding some initial areas for potential cooperation to revise national election legislation. ODIHR had also optimistically planned to release the report publicly in July. ¶2. (C) However, Moreau said, the ODIHR draft assessment was very poorly received. More than two months after receiving it, Akhmedova told OSCE reps that the assessment as a whole was far too critical and completely unacceptable as a basis for further cooperation with OSCE and ODIHR. She then pushed the draft back across the table to the OSCE representatives, without markup. Moreau said that OSCE officials were shocked. Nevertheless, they are regrouping and will try to determine how to re-engage the Turkmen again on ODIHR,s suggestions. ODIHR representatives, he said, have scrapped plans to release the assessment. ¶3. (C) The assessment reviewed all national legislation related to elections at all levels of government, and identified six major problems in both the constitution and national legislation, including the lack of legislation or constitutional foundation facilitating the nomination of independent candidates, and the lack of an election administration that is pluralistic and independent of the executive branch. It also made 18 general reform recommendations that focused on establishing pluralism, reducing national government influence on the election process, and improving transparency. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: While no one disagrees that election legislation here is problematic, the ODIHR assessment may have been too direct, comprehensive, and critical. We would also not that the elderly chairman of the election commission is one of the oldest of the Communist dinosaurs still left in the government. Although the government appears committed to gradually improving the human rights situation here, it probably views large-scale democratic reform as potentially destabilizing. Pluralism and the nomination of independent candidates is still a long way off. OSCE may be more successful if it proposes some basic initial steps and links them to potential cooperation rather than focus on the end game of a fully functioning democracy. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND