DUSHANBE, March 15, 2011, Asia-Plus — The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) met on March 15 to set the date for parliamentary by-election (special election) in Dushanbe’s constituency # 4, the source at CCER said. The by-election is set for May 15.
The CCER chairman Shermuhammad Shohiyon says nomination of candidates for the by-election starts on March 16 and lasts until March 30. Registration of candidates will be finished on April 15.
40,500 somoni have been allocated from the national budget for holding the by-election in Dushanbe’s constituency # 4.
The by-election will be called following appointment of Shermuhammad Shohiyon who formerly represented this constituency in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) as the CCER chairman.
To-date, only three of eight political parties officially registered in the country, namely People’s Democratic, Islamic Revival and Agrarian parties have announced their readiness to nominate their candidates for by-election in this constituency.
Representatives of Communist and Democratic parties have noted that they will not participate in the by-election. The Party of Economic Reforms and the Socialist Party have not yet decided on this issue.
In the meantime, the Social-Democratic Party leader Rahmatillo Zoirov says his party will participate in the by-election only under the condition that its members will be included into divisional electoral commissions.
