OSCE Opens Tajikistan Election-Monitoring Mission

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is seeking a fourth term in the country's November presidential election

The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has opened a mission in Dushanbe to monitor Tajikistan's November 6 presidential election.

The mission's chairwoman, Paraschiba Badescu, told journalists in the Tajik capital on October 2 that 13 international experts and 16 long-term observers from 22 countries will take part in the mission's work.

Up to 150 short-term observers will arrive in Tajikistan for the day of the election.

The OSCE's preliminary assessment of the poll will be made the day after the vote. A final report will be made public two months later.

The OSCE has never found any election in Tajikistan to have fully corresponded to international democratic standards.

Incumbent Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, who has been the country's leader since 1992, is running for a fourth term.