DUSHANBE, April 18, 2011, Asia-Plus — Electoral commission at Dushanbe’s constituency # 4 (Sino district) has registered the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) candidate Said Ibrohim Nazar for parliamentary by-election (special election) scheduled for May 15 despite his refusal of registration.
The electoral commission head Abdullo Habibov told Asia-Plus Monday afternoon that the commission registered Said Ibrohim Nazar as candidate for the upcoming by-election at the end of last week.
According to him, candidate himself cannot refuse the registration without written consent of a conference of the party organization that has nominated him for the by-election. “Since Said Ibrohim Nazar was nominated by IRP’s organization in Dushanbe’s Sino district, the refusal of registration must come from IRP’s organization in Sino district,” Habibov noted.
He added that they have still failed to hand over candidate certificate to the IRP representative. “The IRP representative refuses to take the certificate under various pretexts,” Habibov said.
In the meantime, Said Ibrohim Nazar told Asia-Plus today that he will be waiting for decision of IRP’s political council on this subject. “The political council is meeting tomorrow,” the IR candidate said.
We will recall that electoral commission for Dushanbe’s constituency # 4 on April 5 registered four candidates for the upcoming parliamentary by-election. Among them are Amirqul Azimov nominated by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDPT), Muzaffar Mirzoyev nominated by the Agrarian Party (APT) and two self-propelled candidates — Tolibshoh Saidzoda, editor-in-chief of the Dushanbe weekly Millat (Nation), and Safarbek Mannonov, deputy director of the National Medical Center.
The Islamic Revival Party (IRP) candidate Said Ibrohim Nazar has refused to register for the by-election because the IRP is not represented in polling stations.
The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) says that under the country’s election legislation, representatives of political parties cannot be members of the polling stations; they just may attend the poling stations as observers. According to the CCER officials, Said Ibrohim Nazar ran for a seat in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) in Kulob’s constituency in 2005. At that time, at first Said Ibrohim Nazar also refused to register for the same reason but he then changed his mind.
The by-election will be held on May 15 following appointment of Shermuhammad Shohiyon who formerly represented Dushanbe’s constituency # 4 in the Majlisi Namoyandagon as the CCER chairman.
Dushanbe’s constituency # 4 reportedly numbers some 70,000 voters and 48 polling stations are expected to be set up in the constituency.
