DUSHANBE, December 28, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) held a meeting today to discuss issues related to registration fee needed to run the parliamentary elections and the procedure of coverage of the 2010 parliamentary elections in media.
By CCER’s resolution the Committee for TV and Radio-broadcasting provides all political parties running in the elections and their representatives 30 minutes of free air time each on national radio and TV channel, Shabakai Avval (Channel One), or local radio and television, while candidates running elections in singe-mandate constituencies and their representatives will be given 15 minutes of free air time each.
Representatives of political parties and registered candidates, running elections in the singe-mandate constituencies, have the right to publish articles about political parties and candidates (up to eight double-spaced pages, font 14) in state-run print media free of charge.
The commission set the registration fee needed for running in the elections at 200 (two hundred) accounts indices. For this year, the government has determined the accounts index at 35.00 somoni, and therefore, the registration fee for the 2010 parliamentary elections has been determined at 7,000 somoni.
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 pass 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.
According to the source at CCER, the registration fee is given back to political party if it passes a five percent threshold and to the elected self-propelled candidates. In all other cases, the registration fee is not given back and will be transferred to the national budget, he added.
We will recall that many political parties in Tajikistan have called for the elimination of the registration fee because it prevents candidates of many parties from running in parliamentary elections. In the meantime, proponents of the fee say it is necessary to prevent irresponsible candidates from being elected to parliament.
