DUSHANBE, July 3, 2008, Asia-Plus — The final fifth meeting of the working group for discussing amendments to the parliamentary election legislation was held in Dushanbe today.
The meeting participants included representatives of all officially registered political parties, Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER), Center for Strategic Studies a well as civil society.
Issues related to a threshold needed for political parties for representation in parliament and the number of deputies of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) caused lively discussions. The meeting participants reached a consensus and agreed that the election threshold for political parties should be reduced from 5% to 3% and the number of deputies of the lower house of the parliament should be increased from 63 to 100.
The Majlisi Namoyandagon currently has 63 seats, to which 22 members are elected from party lists and 41 members from single-member constituencies.
The meetings were held within the framework of the IFES project to support credible elections in Tajikistan. The project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
We will recall that the legislative elections held on February 27, 2005, consolidated ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDPT) control over the legislative branch. Of the six parties that entered candidates, the PDPT took an overwhelming 52 seats, whereas the Communist Party won 4 seats, the Islamic Revival Party won 2 seats, and independent candidates took the remaining 5 seats.
