The Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT) is making preparations for its pre-election congress, which is set for December 15.
“About 100 delegates from all regions of the country are expected to participate in the congress that will nominate candidates for the parliamentary elections that are expected to take place in late February next year,” PT leader Saidjaffar Usmonzoda, who is also deputy of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower house of parliament), told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, they intend to form their faction consisting of five persons in the next Majlisi Namoyandagon.
“We will have a party list of 0 candidates and the same number of candidates will be nominated for running in parliamentary elections in single-mandate constituencies,” DPT leader said.
The main requirements to be met by DPT candidates are patriotism, ability to listen to voters and convey their concerns to the authorities, and honestly defending truly national interests, Usmonzoda added.
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 Usmonzoda was elected as chairman of the party.
According to some sources, the party now has some 20,000 members.
