DUSHANBE, March 2, 2015, Asia-Plus — Democratic Party (DPT) leader Saidjaffar Ismonov is confident of his victory in elections.
According him, he won more than 77 percent votes in the Farkhor single-mandate.
“They have called me from Farkhor and congratulated on the victory,” Ismonov told Asia-Plus in an interview.
We will recall that DPT leader competed for a seat in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) with Zayniddin Yusufov, nominated by the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) and the self-propelled candidate Yusufkhon Sayfiddinov as candidate from the Agrarian Party (APT) Nouriddin Azamatov, candidate from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Safarali Sharifov and the self-propelled candidate Mavlonbi Tourayeva have withdrawn their candidacies just a few days before the election.
The Democratic Party of Tajikistan can trace its origins back to the last days of the Soviet Union. Registered on June 21, 1991 and banned by the Supreme Court on June 21, 1993, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan was reregistered on December 3, 1999.
At the end of 1990s, two factions laid claim to the Democratic Party of Tajikistan: the Almaty platform led by Mahmadruzi Iskandarov and the Tehran platform run by Azam Afzali. The Tehran platform later transformed itself into the Taraqqiyot (Progress) Party.
On October 5, 2005, the Supreme Court sentenced DPT leader Mahmadruzi Iskandarov to 23 years in prison. The sentence followed his conviction on charges of terrorism, the embezzlement of state funds, and the illegal storage of weapons, though his supporters say he was jailed for political motives.
The party split into two factions again and the Ministry of Justice recognized Masoud Sobirov as the legitimate leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan in October 2006.
Democrats in Sughd province and Gorno Badakhshan as well as some primary organizations of the party in other regions of the country did not recognize Masoud Sobirov as the party leader and they demanded convocation of the extraordinary congress of the party.
An extraordinary congress of the party took place in Dushanbe on December 23, 2012 and Saidjaffar Ismonov was elected as chairman of the party.
