DUSHANBE, October 1, 2009, Asia-Plus — Political parties in Tajikistan today are much weaker than in the early 1990s, Professor Ibrohim Usmonov remarked at a roundtable entitled “Political Parties of Tajikistan and Parliamentary Elections: Pre-election Platforms of Democratic (DPT) and Socialist (SPT) Parties” in Dushanbe on September 30.
“Twenty year ago, political parties entered the pre-election struggle much more actively than today,” Usmonov said. Besides, the previous election legislation had given much more opportunities for nomination of candidates, he added.
On the chances of DPT and SPT to get seats in the future parliament, the expert said that both parties had internal disagreements and their chances to get seats in the parliament were low. “I think these parties will get not more than two seats in the parliament,” Usmonov said.
However, the deputy leader of the DPT, Khaidullo Abdulloyev, expressed confidence that Democrats are able to win up to five seats in the parliament.
The SPT leader Abduhalim Ghafforov, for his part, noted that Socialists were now a serous force in Tajik politics having 17,500 members.
The meeting was organized by the Dushanbe weekly
Jomea
(Society). Qironshoh Sharifzoda, the editor-in-chief of
Jomea
and head of the public association,
Journalist
, noted that they planned to organize a series of similar meetings with participation of senior representatives from all eight political parties officially registered in the country.
We will recall that parliamentary elections will be held in Dushanbe in February 2010.
