The Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT) held its pre-election congress on August 23.
The congress nominated DPT leader Saidjaffar Usmonzoda as the party candidate for president.
Saidjaffar Usmonzoda is participating in the presidential elections for the second in time. In the previous presidential election that took place in 2013, he got only 1.02 percent of the vote.
Recall, a joint session of both chamber of parliament that took place on August 6 set October 11 as the date for the country's next presidential election.
To-date, three of seven officially registered political parties of Tajikistan have nominated their candidates for president: the Agrarian Party of Tajikistan; the Socialist Party of Tajikistan; and the Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
The Communist party and the ruling People’s Democratic Party will nominate their candidates for president in September.
As far the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT) is concerned, its leader says the party’s organizations in cities and districts oppose the participation of Social-Democrats in the upcoming presidential election.
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.
