Observation Mission Presents Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions

The parliamentary and presidential elections were competitive, and fundamental freedoms were respected, although the process remains insufficiently regulated, it is said in the Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions, presented on Thursday by representatives of the joint observation mission from the OSCE/ODIHR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the European Parliament (EP).

The election legislation provides a suitable framework for holding democratic elections, but persisting inconsistencies, gaps, and ambiguities compromised legal certainty and merit revision, it was added.

“Regrettably, the Electoral Code was recently amended through expedited processes lacking transparency and public consultation, which is not in line with international standards and OSCE commitments. Although the changes incorporated some previous ODIHR recommendations and technical proposals from the SEC, they largely disregarded recommendations of the inter-agency working group tasked with electoral reform,” Jillian Stirk, who headed ODIHR’s election observation mission, stated.