Rahmatullo Zoyirov. Photo from Asiaplustj.info
The Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT) does not accept the official results of the parliamentary elections held in the country on 1 March, SDPT leader Rahmatullo Zoyirov has declared in a post on his Facebook page (in Russian). According to Zoyirov, the country’s Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) announced the preliminary results of the voting “after many hours of consultations and after taking the political decision of the president as guidance”.
“The official preliminary results of the elections to the Majlisi Oli’s Majlisi Namoyandagon on the basis of a single country-wide electoral district by party list, read out by Bakhtiyor Khudoyorzoda (head of the CCER – Fergana), are not accurate, but rather the product of a fabricated political decision,” Zoyirova’s statement reads.
He pointed out that the official results of the parliamentary elections were amended three times in the course of 12 hours before being officially “declared”.
“At 6 a.m., the SDPT had 29.5% of votes, at 11 a.m. 7.4%, and by 3 p.m. 0.32%. And these are supposed to be free and democratic elections?” Zoyirov wrote in a comment under his declaration.
The preliminary results of the parliamentary elections were announced by the CCER during the course of the day on 2 March. According to the official results, the ruling People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT) gained 50.4% of votes, the Economic Reform Party – 16.6%, the Agrarian Party – 16.5%, the Democratic Party – 5.1% and the Socialist Party – 5.1%. Unable to overcome the 5% electoral threshold and thus deprived of any deputies by party list were the Communist Party (3.1%) and the Social-Democratic Party (0.32%).
Of the 63 deputies of the Majlisi Oli’s Majlisi Namoyandagon (the lower chamber of parliament), 22 are elected by party list (on the basis of one country-wide electoral district), and the rest from single-mandate electoral districts. Including the results from the single-mandate districts, 47 seats in the new parliament will be occupied by the NDPT, 7 by the Agrarian Party, 5 by the Economic Reform Party, 2 by the Communist Party and one each by the Socialist and Democratic Parties.
In the previous parliament, the PDPT had 51 seats, the Agrarian party had 5, the Economic Reform Party 3, the Communist Party 2, and the Socialist and Democratic parties one each. The SDPT, seen by many as a party of intellectuals and the only real opposition force in the country, has still never succeeded in entering parliament.
