DUSHANBE, February 19, 2015, Asia-Plus — The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has refused to nominate its candidates for election to local councils.
“We have not nominated our candidates to run for election to regional, city and district legislatures because elections to local councils are carried out as dictated by local authorities,” SDP leader Rahamtillo Zoyirov told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, electoral commissions of some cities and districts of Tajikistan, including Dushanbe, have applied to the SDP asking to nominate its candidates for their legislatures.
“We said we will not participate in elections to local councils until representatives of all political parties officially functioning in Tajikistan are included into the precinct election commissions,” Zoyirov said.
Founded in 2002, the Social-Democratic Party was registered on December 20, 2002. It was originally registered as the Party of Justice and Development on February 5, 1999. Tajikistan”s Ministry of Justice requested the same year that the Supreme Court ban the party”s activities and its registration was canceled. The party re-emerged and was registered under the name of the Social-Democratic Party in late 2002. Chairman of the Social-Democratic Party is Rahmatillo Zoyirov and the party reportedly has more than 8,000 members.
