DUSHANBE, December 1, 2011, Asia-Plus — By the Central Commission for Referenda and Elections (CCER)’s decision the district electoral commission has been set up for the upcoming parliamentary by-election that will take place in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district on December 18.
Abdullo Kholiqov, the chairman of the district electoral commission, says all the eight officially registered political parties of the country are represented on the commission.
According to him, the district electoral commission has established 49 polling stations. “38 of them are located in the Shomansour district and eleven others are located in the Firdavsi district, because part of this district is part of constituency # 3,” Kholiqov noted.
Constituency # 3 reportedly numbers 68,489 voters.
Four candidates, namely Mr. Abduhalim Gafarov, Chairman of the Socialist Party of Tajikistan (SPT), Mr. Abduqahhor Tursunov, Vice-Chancellor of Tajik Technical University, Mr. Suhrob Sharipov, representative of the People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDP), and Mr. Suhrob Oymahmadov, representative of the Party of Economic Reforms of Tajikistan, were registered to run in the upcoming by-election.
Tajik opposition parties have not proposed any candidates to take part in the by-election in the Shohmansour constituency.
Social-Democratic Party leader Rahmatilo Zoirov proposed that opposition parties boycott the election. He said that until the electoral law is changed and opposition parties are represented on the electoral commissions at all levels, government officials will be able to arrange the outcome of all elections in advance.
The Islamic Revival Party (IRP) agreed that opposition party officials should be represented on election commissions, but at the same time the IPR does not support the idea of a boycott. The IRP said all party members in the Shohmansour constituency are free to vote or not, as they wish.
The Communist Party argued that the election law should be amended to lower the amount of money candidates must pay as a nonrefundable deposit in the event a candidate is not elected. The current required deposit of 7,000 somoni (about $1,500) is equal to about 200 minimum monthly salaries in Tajikistan. The Communists also disagreed with the boycott of the by-election and said their members are free to vote for “the best candidate” in Shohmansour.
We will recall that of 63 seats in the Majlisi Namoyandagon, 22 seats come from party lists. The remainder is elected in first-past-the-post races.
