Ashgabat, 3 June 2010 – UNDP Turkmenistan continues building up capacities of electoral officials of Turkmenistan through BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) trainings, which is a well-recognized capacity development resource for election commissions. A series of BRIDGE trainings have now been offered to a total of 80 members of district election commissions in all five provinces of Turkmenistan and in the city of Ashgabat. Trainings were conducted by the teams comprised of selected staff of regional election commissions, who earlier underwent BRIDGE training of trainers in Ashgabat.

Similar to the training for members of regional election commissions in Ashgabat, trainings in provinces focused on international electoral standards and principles, election commission functions and structure, code of conduct of electoral officials, strategic and financial planning, local and international observers, regulating media during election. It is expected that this pilot initiative will be repeated ahead of Elections to District Khalk Maslahaty (People’s Council) in December 2010.

BRIDGE trainings were organized as part of the comprehensive effort to develop capacity of the Central Election Commission of Turkmenistan and its local branches within the framework of UNDP project “Cooperation on Enhancing Electoral System and Processes in Turkmenistan”. It is for the first time that training for electoral officials were delivered based on BRIDGE methodology.

BRIDGE is a modular professional development program with a particular focus on electoral processes. Designed by the experts on election from all over the world, BRIDGE concentrates on principles of successful election administration through modeling the practical approaches of different countries.

The UNDP project “Cooperation on Enhancing Electoral System and Processes in Turkmenistan” was launched in 2008. The project is being implemented by UNDP in partnership with the National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights with the financial support of the Government of Norway. It aims to provide technical support to the government of Turkmenistan with the view of deepening democratic processes and reforms pursued by Turkmenistan. The purpose of technical support is to expose the state institutions of Turkmenistan to relevant international experience to enhance the electoral system and processes in Turkmenistan. 

For more information please contact:

Timur Dosmamedov, Communications Associate
UNDP Turkmenistan
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: (99312) 425250
Fax: (99312) 425317
Web: www.undptkm.org