DUSHANBE, November 9, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Social-Democratic Party (SDPT) has made a number of proposals over the parliamentary elections in the country due in February 2010.
The SDPT board has applied to the main subjects and organizers of the electoral process, in particular the president as the guarantor of organization and holding of free, democratic and fair elections in Tajikistan, asking to consider eight proposals made by the party.
The SDPT suggests that the president should stop its membership and chairmanship in the People’s Democratic Party (PDPT) for the period of organization and holding of the 2010 parliamentary elections. Since the president does not have the right to be deputy of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament), the PDPT should be prohibited from using portraits, speeches and articles of the president for agitation purposes.
The party suggests that the Central Commission for Referenda and Elections (CCER) should be formed under the following principle: the commission members should include one person from each of eight political parties and seven unaffiliated persons; the chairman, the deputy chairman and the secretary of the CCER should be elected from among unaffiliated persons.
Political parties should be allowed to send one member each to electoral commissions for elections to the Majlisi Oli (Tajikistan’s parliament) and local legislatures.
The SDPT also offers to lower a registration fee to 20 minimum wages (current minimum wage in Tajikistan is 60.00 somoni). The current parliamentary election code requires candidates to pay a registration fee of 5,000 somoni that prevents candidates of many parties from running in parliamentary elections. Besides, the money is not returned after the election. Therefore, the party suggests that if candidate collects less than 5 percent of votes the registration fee should be transferred to the national budget but if candidate collects 5 and more percent of votes cast the fee should be returned to him/her.
The SDPT also notes that all candidates and political parties running for seats in the parliament should have equal access to media, specially television and radio.
Taking into consideration climatic and geographical conditions of Tajikistan (mountains cover 93 percent of Tajikistan”s surface area) and electricity shortages in the winter period as well as the fact that there is no access to voters in the winter period, the SDPT proposes to hold the 2010 parliamentary elections in mid-April 2010 and further parliamentary elections on November 6 of appropriate year.
Underlining the importance of independent observance of elections and taking into account that observers of political parties and candidates running for seats in the parliament are their representatives, and therefore, are not independent observers, the SDPT board proposes to invite representatives of civil society as independent observers.
The SDPT suggests that debates, discussion clubs and roundtable meetings on all problems of social life and development of Tajikistan with participation of leaders of the political parties and candidates should be organized, especially on TV and radio.
Besides, the SDPT leader Rahmatillo Zoirov makes a number of his personal proposals. He, in particular offers the president to appoint one representative from each of eight officially registered political parties in the country to the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper chamber of parliament).
The Majlisi Namoyandagon has 63 members, who are directly elected for a period of 5 years. 22 are elected through a proportional, party list system from a single, countrywide constituency. To win seats, parties must surpass a five percent threshold. The remaining 41 members are elected from single-mandate constituencies under a majoritarian system. In the single-mandate constituencies, candidates must win an absolute majority of votes to be elected. If none of the contestants manages to win an absolute majority during the first round, a second round of voting is held between the two leading candidates two weeks later. For any of the elections to be valid, there must be at least a 50% voter turnout.
