The Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT) has begun preparations for the next parliamentary and presidential elections that will take place in Tajikistan in 2020.
“The DPT Political Council has ordered the DPT organizations in cities and districts to begin preparations for the next parliamentary and presidential elections,” DPT leader Saidjaffar Ismonov told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“We have experience of participating in such events and we will analyze our mistakes made during the previous elections and seek new methods of work with electorate,” Ismonov noted.
Asked whether he is ready to participate in the 2020 presidential election, he said that nomination of candidate of any party is prerogative of a party pre-election congress.
Recall, the previous presidential elections were held in Tajikistan on November 6, 2013. Saidjaffar Ismonov, who was nominated by the DPT, collected 1.2 percent (36,573) of the vote.
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 the Sughd province and the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) 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.
According to some source, the party now has some 20,000 members.
