Turkmenistan’s unicameral parliament, the Mejlis, consists of 50 delegates elected every five years. According to the laws of Turkmenistan, any citizen of Turkmenistan who reached the age of 25 and has been living within the country for the last 10 years can become a candidate in parliamentary elections. For the whole time of its functioning, the Mejlis has nevertheless practically never overruled any executive orders or legislation proposed by the executive branch. It has therefore been viewed by international community as a rubber stamp body that mainly fulfills the undertakings of President Saparmurad Niyazov. Constitutional amendments in 2003 further deprived the Mejlis of major legislative functions. As a part of those amendments, certain prerogatives of the Mejlis, such as making changes into the constitution, were handed over to the People’s Council, the major legislative body of elders headed by President Niyazov himself. Although the members of the People’s Council are elected by the people from each district, the body does not possess real authority when it comes to making decisions, hence it is referred as ‘yes men’ in the tongue of Turkmen opposition members abroad.

The elections came a week before the controversial parliamentary elections held in neighboring Uzbekistan on December 26. As opposed to Uzbekistan’s noisy and highly contentious elections, the whole election process in Turkmenistan passed without any demonstrations and pickets. This is explained basically by two facts. First, the population of Turkmenistan remains mostly indifferent to the political situation in the country, as it sees no hope for political change. Second, there is a growing fear especially after the alleged coup attempt of 2002 that any attempt to bring political change, or thereby questioning the righteousness of the President’s rule, can cause major troubles or even leave one behind bars. As the Russian newspaper Novoye Izvestia reported, “organizers of the elections were warned to prevent any ‘anti-political’ statements and actions by the electorate and to stop any attempt to distribute oppositional leaflets.” Moreover, all candidates running for parliamentary deputies were ethnic Turkmens.

The last parliamentary elections were held in 1999 when the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (the former Communist Party) won a landslide victory of 50 seats in the parliament. This made Turkmenistan a one party state, giving no chance for any other possible parties to exist let alone have a seat in the parliament. As government sources reported, the voters’ turnout for the parliamentary elections of 1999 was 99.9 % as opposed to 76% this time. But analysts report that the actual turnout rates were much lower than the official sources reported. The official announcement of election results are expected to be published in state newspapers within two weeks.

The state-owned newspaper outlets advertised the elections and announced the candidates one month prior to election day. At this quick pace, 1,610 polling stations and 50 electoral districts were set up, and 139 candidates competed for 50 seats in the Mejlis. The only election monitors were the representatives of the Turkmen National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights and some other local public organizations. The Central Electoral Commission decided that trusting the monitoring process mainly to this national institute would “give the elections more transparency and make them democratic.” Critics commented on these elections as a showcase to give the false images of democracy in the country. As such, the elections were held practically with no participation of international observers. Particularly, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) representatives were not granted visas to enter the country. Neither were any other international observers invited. Erika Dailey, director of the Open Society Institute’s Turkmenistan Project said “the Turkmen election is much worse than an empty exercise. It is a mockery of the citizenry.”

Thus, the parliamentary elections remain nothing but a mere symbolic procedure to legitimize the current iron fist rule in the country. In this context, the newly elected parliamentarians will undoubtedly be as loyal to the president as the previous ones were. When there is no open internal opposition to express the despair of people, the total population remains submissive to idiosyncratic policies being accepted by authorities. Although the president called the opposition abroad to return and create new parties, repression makes their role as feeble as it was years ago.