Saidjaffar Usmonzoda has been re-elected as Chairman of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT), Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reported on December 10. Usmonzoda has headed the DPT, which was once an opposition party, since 2012.
Usmonzoda was reportedly re-elected as DPT chairman at the 17th congress of the party that took place in Dushanbe on December 10.
74 delegates participated in the congress. Some of them nominated candidacy of Jabber Yuldoshzoda, the head of the DPT organization for Sughd province, for the post of chairman of the party; but 70 of 74 delegates voted for the candidacy of Saidjaffar Usmonzoda. Thus, Usmonzoda led the Democratic Party of Tajikistan for the third time.
Usmonzoda ran for presidency twice – in 2013 and 2020, but failed to receive the required number of votes. At the time, some experts said that the decision to participate in presidential races had been taken to confer legitimacy on the elections.
In the 2015 and 2020 parliamentary elections, Saidjaffar Usmonzoda was elected to the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament).
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.
DPT leaders claim that the party now has more than 80,000 members.
