Tajik ruling party has elected President Emomali Rahmon as a delegate to its extraordinary congress that will take place on September 3.
A regional conference of the PDPT regional organization for the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) that took place in Khorog last week elected Emomali Rahmon as a delegate to the PDPT extraordinary congress.
A source at the PDPT office in Dushanbe says more than 1,000 delegates will participate in the party’s extraordinary congress that will take place at the Khokhi Borbad State Complex in Dushanbe.
According to him, the congress will nominate the party’s candidate for president.
Recall, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Tajikistan formally announced its nomination of Emomali Rahmon Emomali Rahmon, who is in power since 1992, on August 26, suggesting that the incumbent president will participate in the upcoming presidential election.
By this announcement they ended speculation that the incumbent president might step down this year to allow his son Rustam Emomali, who is Mayor of Dushanbe also Speaker of the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper chamber of parliament), to take power.
The other candidates in the election currently comprise Rustam Latifzoda from the Agrarian Party, Abduhalim Ghafforov from the Socialist Party, Saidjaffar Usmonzoda of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, and Rustam Rahmatzoda from the Party of Economic Reforms.
The Social-Democratic Party, which is the only officially registered opposition party in Tajikistan, has declined to nominate its candidate for president.
The ruling People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT) and the Communist Party of Tajikistan (CPT) will nominate their candidates in early September.
Local experts, however, say other candidates that will run in the October presidential election will just serve a purely decorative function.
In the last presidential election that took place in 2013, Emomali Rahmon was reelected by a landslide, with 84 percent of the vote.
Tajikistan's parliament has set October 11 as the date for the country's next presidential election. The resolution on the election date was approved on August 6 during a joint session of both chamber of parliament.
The PDPT is the only political party in Tajikistan that has its offices in Dushanbe and in a number of cities and districts of the country.
The party now has its offices in eighteen cities and districts across the country. In some districts, the party rents buildings for its district organizations.
The PDPT organizing committee was established in 1993, and the party itself was established on December 10, 1994. Until April 1998, it was called the People's Party of Tajikistan.
The party stands for a secular state and society (secularism).
The People’s Democratic Party is the largest political party in Tajikistan, boasting more than 500,000 registered members. President Emomali Rahmon is chairman of the party.
The party has its branches in all regions and largest settlements of Tajikistan. The youth wing of the party is called the Sozandagoni Vatan (Creators of the Motherland).
At the latest legislative elections that took place on March 1, 2020, the PDPT won 65.4 percent of the vote and 51 out of 63 seats. At the previous parliamentary elections, March 1, 2015, the ruling party won 65.4 percent of the vote and 51 out of 63 seats. At the legislative elections that took place on February 28, 2010, the PDPT won 71.69% of the popular vote and 45 out of 63 seats. At the parliamentary elections that took place on February 27, 2005, the PDPT won 74% of the popular vote and 52 out of 63 seats (74 percent of the popular vote). This was an increase from the 2000 elections, in which they won 64.9% of the vote and 38 seats.
