The Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT) is expected to hold its next 14th congress in Dushanbe on December 23.
“120 delegates from all regions of the country and 50 guests are expected to attend the party congress,” representative of the DPT Political Council told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, the DPT Political Council will nominate the incumbent leader of the party for the post of the head of the DPT.
The source further added that the election of the new leader of the party would be held on the alternative basis.
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 the Sughd province and the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) 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.
According to some source, the party now has some 20,000 members.
