DUSHANBE, November 7, Asia-Asia-Plus – Rahmatillo Zoirov, the leader of the Social-Democratic Party (SDPT), has called the November 6 presidential election in Tajikistan illegitimate.
The SDPT managing board today, at 11:00 a.m., gave a news conference on the preliminary results of the Tajik presidential election that was held yesterday.
Speaking to journalists, Zoirov noted that at first it had been noted that 3.2 million voters are eligible to take part in the election and candidates had to collect the 160,000 signatures to register as candidate.
Under Tajikistan’s presidential election law it is needed to collect 5 percent of signatures of a total number of voters to register as candidate.
“While today, the central electoral commission head Mirzoali Boltuyev reporting on the initial results of the election said that 3,356,221 people had been registered as eligible voters,” said Zoirov, “Proceeding from this figure, the number of signatures needed for registration of a candidate should be set at more than 160,000 (167,811 – Asia-Plus).” Therefore registration of candidates was illegitimate, according to Zoirov.
“Secondly, the Constitutional Law of Tajikistan “On the Election of the President of Tajikistan” is not valid because it was adopted in July 1994, that is before the adoption of the present Constitution of the country, which was adopted in November 1994,” Zoirov said.
The SDPT leader also noted that not all political parties had been represented in the central electoral commission, which is also not right.
He also reiterated that the country’s Constitution does not give incumbent President Emomali Rahmonov the right to seek another term.
