Parliamentary Elections, 27 February and 13 March 2005

In response to an invitation from Tajikistan's central election commission, ODIHR deployed an election observation mission to observe the parliamentary election on 27 February 2005, with a second round of voting on 13 March.

Headed by Peter Eicher of the United States, the mission commenced its activities on 25 January and remained in Tajikistan through 6 March. Twenty-seven experts and long-term observers from 17 OSCE participating States were deployed in Dushanbe and six other cities during the observation mission. Three members of the mission remained in Dushanbe until 16 March to assess the second-round contests, the complaints and appeals process, and the final stages of work by election commissions.

On the first election day, 27 February, the mission deployed 150 short-term observers from 30 OSCE participating States.

According to the mission's final report: "The 2005 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan failed to meet many of the key OSCE commitments for democratic elections contained in the 1990 Copenhagen Document, and they were also not conducted fully in accordance with domestic law. Although some efforts were made to improve the legislative and administrative framework for democratic elections, a commensurate effort to ensure effective implementation was largely lacking. Therefore, despite some improvement over previous elections, large-scale irregularities were evident, particularly on lection day."