DUSHANBE, October 15, 2014, Asia-Plus — The Democratic Party (DPT) Political Council has decided to hold the party’s pre-election congress in Dushanbe on December 20.
“Some 80 delegates from all regions of the country will participate in the congress, which will elect candidates to run the 2015 parliamentary elections,” DPT leader Saidjaffar Ismonov told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, they plan to win at least five seats in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) next year. “We intend to create our faction in the parliament,” DPT leader noted.
“Our party now has primary organizations in 54 cities and districts across the country,” Ismonov said.
The Democratic Party of Tajikistan can trace its origins back to the last days of the Soviet Union. Registered on June 21, 1991 and banned by the Supreme Court on June 21, 1993, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan was reregistered on December 3, 1999.
At the end of 1990s, two factions laid claim to the Democratic Party of Tajikistan: the Almaty platform led by Mahmadruzi Iskandarov and the Tehran platform run by Azam Afzali. The Tehran platform later transformed itself into the Taraqqiyot (Progress) Party.
On October 5, 2005, the Supreme Court sentenced DPT leader Mahmadruzi Iskandarov to 23 years in prison. The sentence followed his conviction on charges of terrorism, the embezzlement of state funds, and the illegal storage of weapons, though his supporters say he was jailed for political motives.
The party split into two factions again and the Ministry of Justice recognized Masoud Sobirov as the legitimate leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan in October 2006.
Democrats in Sughd province and Gorno Badakhshan as well as some primary organizations of the party in other regions of the country did not recognize Masoud Sobirov as the party leader and they demanded convocation of the extraordinary congress of the party.
An extraordinary congress of the party took place in Dushanbe on December 23, 2012 and Saidjaffar Ismonov was elected as chairman of the party.
