DUSHANBE, April 2, Asia-Plus – By-elections for three vacant seats in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) that were held in the country yesterday were undemocratic and were held with violation of the election legislation, Muhiddin Kabiri, the leader of the Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) also deputy of the Majlisi Namoyandagon, announced in an interview with Asia-Plus on April 2.
According to him, electoral commissions did not include representatives from the IRPT on electoral commissions at polling stations.
Kabiri noted that representatives from his party had been completely stricken off the lists of members of electoral commissions at polling stations in the Kulob and Firdavsi (Dushanbe) constituencies. “Therefore our candidates running for seats representing these constituencies, Saidibrohim Nazar and Umarali Hisaynov, withdrew their candidacies,” the IRPT leader said.
Kabiri stressed that district electoral commissions of these constituencies had ignored an appropriate ruling of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) to include representatives from political parties on electoral commissions at the polling stations.
On the Hamadoni constituency, Kabiri said that representatives from the IRPT had been included on electoral commissions at some polling stations and “therefore our candidate, Abdulqodir Hasanpur, decided to continue the struggle for seat in this constituency.”
In the meantime, the final results of the votes are not known yet.
Muhibullo Dodojonov, a spokesman for the CCER, said in an interview with Asia-Plus that according to data received, as a result of non-alternative voting in the Firdavsi constituency in Dushanbe, Mahmadali Vatanov, deputy chairman of the country’s Supreme Court, who was nominated by the People’s Democratic Party (PDPT), received 90.7 percent of votes cast (48.665 votes). The Firdavsi constituency numbers 63,580 voters and 53,655 people or 84.3 percent of voters came to ballot boxes yesterday.
We will recall that representatives of two political parties – ruling People’s Democratic Party and Islamic Revival Party – were registered to contest three vacant seats in the Majlisi Namoyandagon in April 1 votes. Two IRPT candidates, Saidibrohim Nazar and Umarali Hisaynov, withdrew their candidates on March 31.
