DUSHANBE, October 1, 2013, Asia-Plus — More than 110,000 signatures have reportedly been collected by October 1 to support the Socialist Party of Tajikistan (SPT) candidate, Abduhalim Ghafforov.
He expressed confidence that his pre-election campaign staff will collect the necessary number of signatures (210,000) by October 7.
Founded in 1993, the Socialist Party of Tajikistan was registered with the Ministry of Justice on August 6, 1996. The party’s founder, Safarali Kenjayev, was assassinated in Dushanbe in late March 1999. The party has not been able to regroup since Kenjayev’s death. It received less than two percent of the votes cast in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
In 2002, the SPT board elected Mirhusein Narziyev to head the party. In 2004, SPT was divided into two factions: the faction led by Mirhusein Narziyev and the faction led by Abduhalim Ghafforov. According to Abduhalim Ghafforov, SPT now has some 19,000 members.
