DUSHANBE, March 10, 2009, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s public associations intends to apply to the president and the parliament in the near future over the national parliament election law. They offer to make a series of changes and addenda to Constitutional Law “On Elections to the Majlisi Oli.”
The OSCE Office in Tajikistan hosted a three-day working meeting on March 4-6 at which representatives of 14 non-governmental organizations discussed the national parliament election law. The meeting participants discussed reforms needed in the parliamentary election laws. Among key reforms requested was the inclusion of non-partisan observers representing civil society during the election period.
Speaking to reporters at Tajik Journalists’ Union after the working meeting, the head of the National Association of Political Scientists of Tajikistan Abdughani Mamadazimov noted on March 6 that they had already prepared a text of the appeal to the president and the parliament over amendments to 11 articles of the parliament election law. According to him, they will deliver their suggestions to the parliament and hope the proposed changes will be in force well before the elections.
Mamadazimov, in particular, noted that the present law did not properly reflect position of the public associations. “The working group aims to promote further democratization of Tajik society, harmonization of the national election legislation with international norms and provision of transparency of elections as well as improvement of Tajikistan’s image on international arena,” he said
“We call on bodies of executive power not to interfere in the voting process that is to eliminate a possibility of inclusion of representatives of them into electoral commissions and participation of them in counting of votes,” Mamadazimov said.
The public associations also propose to increase the number of deputies of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) from 63 to 100.
“The populations of administrative-territorial divisions, being parts of a single-mandate constituency, are different,” said Mamadazimov, “For example, the Danghara district and the city of Norak form one single-mandate constituency. It is obvious that the Danghara representative will win election whatever worthy the Norak candidate is, because the population of Danghara is much higher than the Norak one.”
The political scientist also expressed dissatisfaction with work of representatives of international organizations arriving in the country during elections (OSCE, CIS Inter-Parliament Commission and the Shanghai Cooperation (SCO). He noted that Tajikistan ought to create its own institution of national observers from among representatives of the public associations.
According to press release issued by the OSCE Office on March 6, in June and July 2008, with the assistance of the International Foundation for Election Systems, Tajikistan”s parliamentary election laws were reviewed by all eight registered political parties, the National Association of Political Scientists of Tajikistan and the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER). The results and recommendations stemming from the review were presented to the parliament. The OSCE Office participated in the review meetings as an observer and later, in cooperation with the Government, held a roundtable meeting on elections in Tajikistan.
The last election of the 63 members of Tajikistan”s lower house of parliament took place in February 2005.
