Tajikistan’s ruling party wins parliament elections
By Sara Rajabova
The ruling People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan won the parliamentary elections held on March 1.
The People's Democratic Party, led by President Emomali Rahmon, won 65.2 percent of vote, RIA Novosti reported with reference to the CEC.
The other parties that overcame the five-percent barrier were the Socialist Party, which received 5.5 percent of the vote, the Agrarian Party with 11.8 percent and the Economic Reform Party with 7.6 percent of the vote.
"The elections were free and democratic in accordance with the laws of Tajikistan. It was attended by 3,791,827 voters, representing 87.7 percent of the total number of voters," said Shermuhammad Shohiyon, chairman of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda at a press conference in Dushanba on March 2.
Shohiyon said on March 1 that Tajikistan parliamentary elections have been declared valid. He confirmed that over four million people registered to vote in the elections.
Under the Constitutional law the elections are declared valid if 50 percent of the registered voters cast their ballots.
The elections to the lower house of parliament (Majlisi Namoyandagon) have been held for its 63 members: of these, 41 were elected under a majority-system in single-mandate districts and 22 were elected proportionally from political party lists in a single nationwide district.
Some 212 candidates competed for 41 seats in single-mandate constituencies, of which 108 were nominated by political parties and 104 were self-nominated. After a thorough examination of the documents, the district election commissions (DECs) registered 185 candidates of which 80 were self-nominated.
The representatives of all eight political parties officially functioning in the country -- Agrarian Party of Tajikistan, Democratic Party, Party of Economic Reforms, Communist Party, the Islamic Revival Party, Socialist Party, Social-Democratic Party and People’s Democratic Party –participated in the parliamentary elections.
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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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