He said that by 12:00 local time (10:00 Moscow time) 61.38% of the registered voters visited polling stations.
Fifty electoral districts and 1,610 polling stations have been created to conduct the elections. One hundred and thirty-one candidates compete for 50 seats in the parliament.
The polling stations will be closed at 18:00 local time (16:00 Moscow time).
Two hundred local observers representing the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, the Youth Union, The Women's Union and trade unions monitor the elections.
The CEC officials also announced that they had not sent any official invitations to foreign observers, but they were ready to review any requests to participate in the monitoring process.
Phone, telegraph and radio communications with all polling stations were checked on the eve of the elections. It allowed the CEC to organize timely exchange of information.
Any Turkmen citizen who has reached the age of 25 and has lived in the republic for not less than ten years can become a candidate to deputy of the Turkmen Parliament.
During 1999 elections, 99.6% of Turkmen citizens who have the right to vote participated in the elections. At that time, 104 candidates competed for 50 seats in the parliament.
The human rights situation in Turkmenistan has become a subject of wide-spread controversy. Turkmenistan "intends to make a natural transition to a multi-party system; however, the Western model of democracy is unacceptable for us," stated Turkmen President Sapamurat Niyazov. "There are more than 40,000 leaders who can create own political parties and form a healthy opposition," he insisted. Answering the question about violation of human rights in the republic, Mr. Niyazov stated, "The repression mechanism does not exist in Turkmenistan. I have been working as government official for 18 years, and I cannot recall any instance when somebody have been arrested without a particular reason."
Yet the data collected by various UN commissions, the U.S. Department of State, the Amnesty International organization and other human rights organizations shows a different picture. Turkmen authorities have recently adopted two new laws that openly infringe upon human rights. In particular, one of the laws demands that all associations must register at the Turkmen justice ministry.
Public organizations must also give the justice ministry an advanced notice about all planned actions and allow justice ministry officials to participate in all events conducted by these organizations in order "be informed about their goals and determine whether these goals meet the provisions of the existing Turkmen legislation."
