As the polls close in Turkmenistan's parliamentary elections, the government has said the turnout was around 90 percent.

Some 2.5 million people are eligible to cast ballots on December 14 to elect a new, enlarged parliament.

Turkmenista:Increased harassment of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty correspondents in run-up to parliamentary elections

Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty’s correspondents and regular contributors have been cut off from the rest of the world and closely watched by National Security agents for the past month because of the parliamentary elections taking place on 14 December and an accompanying government desire to exert the utmost control over news and information.

The telephone lines are cut, journalists are harassed, and the candidates won't speak to you. For independent journalists, covering Turkmenistan's parliamentary elections on December 14 is far from easy. We asked the director of RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, Oguljamal Yazliyeva, about the challenges she and her colleagues face.

President told it is time to end country’s isolation

With three days to go to Turkmenistan’s parliamentary elections, Reporters Without Borders wrote to President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov today urging him to “implement reforms that show a real political desire for liberalisation” and to end the isolation of his country and people.

ASHGABAT -- Prominent Turkmen civil rights activist Valeri Pal has been released from prison.

Pal was released after Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov signed a decree granting amnesty to him on the eve of Neutrality Day, usually marked in Turkmenistan on December 12.

BALKANABAT, Turkmenistan -- The OSCE mission in Ashgabat says it will inform the Turkmen Central Election Commission about concerns expressed by a Turkmen dissident who was not allowed to register as a candidate for parliament.

The campaign for the December 14 parliamentary election in Turkmenistan is so low-key that few people know who their candidates are and fewer still are interested, NBCentralAsia observers say.

Germany and Austria: Press Turkmenistan on Rights
President’s Visit a Chance to Seek Release of Political Prisoners, Access for Rights Monitors

(New York, November 13, 2008) – Germany and Austria should use meetings with the president of Turkmenistan to press for human rights reforms, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to the German and Austrian leaders. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov began his first official visit to Germany on November 13, 2008, and is scheduled to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel on November 14. His state visit to Austria, which includes a meeting with President Heinz Fischer, will be November 17-18.

It is not economic prosperity but peace that guarantees press freedom. That is the main lesson to be drawn from the world press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders compiles every year and from the 2008 edition, released today. Another conclusion from the index - in which the bottom three rungs are again occupied by the “infernal trio” of Turkmenistan (171st), North Korea (172nd) and Eritrea (173rd) - is that the international community’s conduct towards authoritarian regimes such as Cuba (169th) and China (167th) is not effective enough to yield results.

INCOMPREHENSION AT UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL'S
REFUSAL TO NAME SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR
TURKMENISTAN

Reporters Without Borders is baffled by the
United Nations Human Rights Council's rejection
on 23 September of a draft resolution for the
appointment of a special rapporteur on the human
rights situation in Turkmenistan. The resolution
was proposed by the European Union, Canada,
Switzerland and Uruguay.