DUSHANBE, February 19, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) has filed suit against electoral commission of constituency in Dushanbe’s Sino district over the results of February 8 parliamentary by-election, Asia-Plus has learned from Hikmatullo Sayfullozoda, a spokesman for the IRPT. According to him, they seek nullification for the by-election results.
A court case pitting the party against the Sino constituency’s electoral commission began at the Sino district court on February 17.
The IRPT considers the results of parliamentary by-election that was held in Dushanbe’s Sino constituency on February 8 unfair. To explain its view and position the IRPT held a press conference at Tajik Journalists’ Union on February 10. Speaking to reporters, member of the IRPT board, Muhammadali Hait, said that they on February 9 thoroughly analyzed information they had collected during the voting process and came to a conclusion that the by-election results had been falsified. “Although our representatives were not included in electoral commissions at poling stations we managed to conduct unofficial monitoring and it turned out that only 18 percent of the overall number of voters in this constituency came to cast vote,” said Mr. Hait, “At 10 of 44 polling stations, 2,697 voters came to cast vote and 82 percent of them voted for the IRPT candidate.”
We will recall that according to preliminary results declared on February 9, member of Tajikistan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDPT) has won a February 8 parliamentary by-election in Dushanbe’s Sino district, according to preliminary results. According to the preliminary data provided by the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER), the PDPT representative Amir Katayev won with 91 percent of the vote, with his opponent, Dodikhudo Abdulloyev of the IRPT, garnering just 6.7 percent of the vote.
The Sino constituency numbers 71,292 voters. According to the preliminary data, 55,393 voters (77.6 percent of the total number of voters) came to ballot boxes on Sunday; 50,447 (91 percent) of them voted for Katayev and 3,765 (6.7 percent) voted for Abdulloyev.
The by-election was called following appointment of Karimjon Qodirov, who formerly represented the Sino district in the parliament, as Chancellor of Kulob State University. The PDPT nominated Amir Katayev, formerly Chancellor of Tajik Technological University, for the by-election and the IRPT fielded deputy head of the IRPT organization in Dushanbe Dodikhudo Abdulloyev as its candidate.
