The delegation of the CIS Executive Committee headed by the First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee - CIS Executive Secretary Leonid Anfimov arrived in Ashgabat to participate in the assessment of the upcoming Presidential elections of Turkmenistan.

According to the website of the CIS Executive Committee, a meeting was held with the delegation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.

During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on preparations for the upcoming Presidential elections in Turkmenistan, as well as on the arrangement of the international observers’ work.

"This is not the first time the CIS observer mission works on elections in Turkmenistan. Those were both Presidential elections and elections of Deputies of the Mejlis. Every time the observers of the Commonwealth objectively and honestly covered the preparation and conduct of election campaigns," noted Rashid Meredov, the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

For his part, Leonid Anfimov informed that from today, the CIS observer mission would start monitoring the Presidential campaign in Turkmenistan. Today he has had a meeting with the Chairman of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda Gulmurat Muradov. The Mission Headquarters has started its work.
In particular, Anfimov noted:

"I think that in the near future we will receive data on the names of the Mission members. We hope that the Chairmen of the Central Election Commissions of the CIS member states or their deputies, representatives of the Parliaments of the Commonwealth countries, the Parliamentary Assembly of Belarus and Russia will take part in its work. I think that representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Turkmenistan will take part as long-term observers."

To recap, early elections for the post of the country’s President are to be held in Turkmenistan on March 12. Before, we reported that the CIS Executive Committee began forming a mission to monitor the Presidential elections of Turkmenistan.

Also, on February 25, a group of international observers from Russia arrived in Turkmenistan.