Tajik Ruling Party Sweeps Polls, Opposition out
Tajikistan's ruling party swept weekend legislative elections, while the main Islamic opposition group failed to make parliament, according to results Monday from a poll Western observers called flawed.
With 65 percent of the vote, the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT) chaired by President Emomali Rakhmon was on course to take the vast majority of the legislature's 63 seats.
In a major surprise, the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), the only registered faith-based party in post-communist Central Asia, failed to win any seats for the first time since the secular majority-Muslim country introduced the lower house in a 1999 constitutional change.
Over 500 international observers monitored Sunday's vote, which the IRPT complained was preceded by government harassment of its members.
"Significant shortcomings, including multiple voting and ballot box stuffing, and disregard of counting procedures meant that an honest count could not be guaranteed," said Norbert Neuser, head of a European Parliament delegation.
Tajikistan's second largest party by membership, IRPT is one of the few potential sources of genuine opposition to Rakhmon's 22-year rule.
The party, which includes members who fought against forces loyal to Rakhmon in a five-year civil war in the 1990s, won only 1.5 percent of the national vote, according to the central electoral commission.
IRPT chairman Muhiddin Kabiri complained ahead of the vote that the government had ratcheted up harassment of its 42,000 members.
On Monday, Kabiri told journalists the results of the vote "did not correspond with reality" and that the party refused to accept the election commission figures.
"We knew that there was pressure and that it would not be easy for us, but we did not expect such results," he said. "It was the people who lost in these falsified elections."
IRPT spokesman Mahmudzhon Faizrakhmonov was reportedly detained by police Monday.
Khikmatullo Sayfullozoda, a member of the IRPT political committee, told AFP the elections were "not transparent" and "contradictory to the interests of the people."
Three other parties that made it into parliament -- the Agrarian Party, the Party of Economic Reforms of Tajikistan and the Socialist Party of Tajikistan -- are broadly viewed as pro-government.
The Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan, critical of the Rakhmon government, also failed to win any seats, as did the Communist Party of Tajikistan.
Source: Agence France Presse
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