DUSHANBE, September 3, 2014, Asia-Plus — Election of new people to Tajikistan’s parliament depends on, first of all, the president and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which is led by the president, the deputy head of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP), Shokirjon Hakimov, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“To ensure accession of new people with new ideas and new ways of thinking to the parliament it is necessary to bring electoral commissions out of control of the government and make amendments to the country’s election legislation regarding admission of members of political parties to the polling stations,” Hakimov said, noting that the key condition is to ensure the holding of transparent and democratic elections.
The expert is sure that if all these conditions are fulfilled, more than 40 percent of deputies of the lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament will be renewed in February 2015 and the quality of adopted laws adopted will be much improved.
The next parliamentary elections in Tajikistan are scheduled for February 2015. The Supreme Assembly (Majlisi Oli), Tajikistan”s parliament, has two chambers: Assembly of Representatives (Majlisi Namoyandagon), the lower chamber with 63 members elected for a five-year term, 22 by proportional representation and 41 in single-seat constituencies. The current Chairman of Majlisi Namoyandagon is Shukurjon Zuhurov; and National Assembly (Majlisi Milli), the upper chamber with 33 members, 25 elected for a five-year term by members of local legislatures and 8 appointed by the president. The current Chairman of Majlisi Milli is Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev.
The bicameral legislature was introduced in the September 1999 constitution. Prior to that Tajikistan had a unicameral legislature.
