Ï Towards democratization of the state and society
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Towards democratization of the state and society

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The term of office of the members of the Mejlis of the fourth convocation is expiring this year. Candidates representing at least two parties will compete for parliamentary mandates. The Turkmen leader said that would give a powerful impetus to the election campaign and allow voters to nominate the most worthy candidates to the legislative body. The recently founded party – the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan will run for seats in the elective body, together with the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan that has become an active social and political force during the years of independence. We should remind that the founding meeting of the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan that brought together about 500 participants representing business organisations from all over the country in Ashgabat in August 2012 approved the Charter and the party programme and elected the Central Council and the Chairperson.

Effective steps are taken to strengthen the democratic foundations of the Turkmen state and broaden and enhance political rights and freedoms of citizens. In this regard, emphasis should be put on the ongoing legal reform that has made it possible to adopt the new Constitution in 2008 and implement the universally recognized standards of international law in national legislation. This is vividly illustrated by the adoption of the Law on the Election of the President of Turkmenistan, the Law on Political Parties, the Law on the Mejlis of Turkmenistan, the Law on the Election to the Mejlis of Turkmenistan and other laws that ensure the high level of organisation of the election to bodies of state authority and local government bodies, freedom of citizens to associate into political parties, the functioning of a multiparty system.

The foreign policy of the Turkmen state at the present stage encompasses the enhancement of full cooperation with the UN, the European Union and other major international organisations, including in the field of human rights. In particular, the Interagency Commission for the Monitoring of the Implementation of Human Rights Commitments and International Humanitarian Law was created and the Human Rights Information Centre that aims to increase awareness of government officials, research officers, students, activists and other stakeholders of best international practices in this field opened at the Turkmen National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights under the President of Turkmenistan.

In his keynote speech at the meeting with the members of the Parliament the Turkmen leader dwelt upon the work done for the last four years noting that the members of the Mejlis of the fourth convocation had adopted a number of legal acts relating directly to political and socio-economic rights and freedoms. These include the Law on Political Parties, the Family Code, the Labour Code, the Social Welfare Code, the Law on the Mass Media, a number of statutory acts aimed at improving national electoral system. The Turkmen leader set the priority objectives that needed to be implemented in legislation, including improving the education system, finalizing the Social Welfare Code, adopting the Housing Code. In his keynote speech the Turkmen leader also emphasized the need to modernize the Civil Code and draft the Electoral Code.