Tajikistan president set to win another term

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon was Wednesday set to clinch a fourth term at the helm of the poorest ex-Soviet state, helped by a lack of any serious opposition and a mass turnout by voters.
In a tale all too familiar throughout Muslim but vehemently secular ex-Soviet Central Asia, the five candidates standing against Rakhmon in presidential elections are virtual unknowns even inside the country, with next to no chance of victory.
But turnout had reached an impressive 68 percent by 1:00 p.m. (0800 GMT) Wednesday, the central election commission said, after polls opened at 6:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) in an apparent bid to maximize participation.
Rakhmon’s most significant rival, female rights lawyer Oinikhol Bobonazarova of the moderate opposition Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, was unable to stand after narrowly failing to muster the signatures required to register her candidacy.
Bobonazarova gathered only 202,000 of the 210,000 signatures required that equates to five percent of the electorate, a shortfall her party blamed on harassment from the local authorities.
“The opposition is not represented in these elections. Even the registered candidates are not opposed to the president,” Bobonazarova’s party spokesman Khikmatullo Saifullozoda said.
Another main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, said it was also boycotting the elections because of “a lack of democracy and transparency.”
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which is monitoring the polls, noted in its interim report that “there is no visible campaign by other candidates so far.” One of Rakhmon’s purported rivals, the candidate of the Agrarian Party Tolibek Bukhoriyev, appeared unworried by the prospect of Rakhmon’s looming victory.
“Today is a great holiday, today are the elections and the day of the constitution. I expect a great improvement in our lives from these elections,” he said.
Communist Party candidate Ismoil Talbakov also thanked the authorities Wednesday for giving him a chance to familiarise voters with his program.
At the entrance to Dushanbe Plaza, the capital’s tallest building, Tajiks were greeted by live music and poll workers dressed in traditional costumes who were handing out free drinks in an effort to attract a bigger vote.
Rakhmon, 61, won the last election in 2006 with nearly 80 percent of the ballot on 90-percent reported voter participation, and many expected him to do just as well this time around.
“I think the result is clear. We know who the president will be for the next seven years,” said Abdurozik, 57, after casting his ballot.
A taxi driver named Rakhim, 43, expressed a similar sentiment.
“My only question is why they put up so many other candidates,” he said. “Everyone knows Rakhmon. But who are these other guys?” Shadowed by the more than 7,000-meter (23,000-feet) high peaks of the Pamir Mountains, Persian-speaking Tajikistan boasts a crucial strategic position, bordering China and Afghanistan, as well as ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.




Its importance could grow with the pullout of US troops from Afghanistan next year.
Rakhmon, who has dropped the Russian ‘ov’ from is name and downgraded the status of Russian, has had tricky relations with Moscow. But this year he agreed to extend the presence of a Russian military base in the country until 2042.




Yet the resource-poor country suffers from chronic energy shortages and is mired in grinding poverty that has left it the poorest ex-Soviet state and forced many to work in Russia, with their remittances providing a crucial chunk of GDP.
In an apparent bid to lift the electorate’s mood, the government promised not to cut power supplies anywhere in the country as long as polling stations remained open.
Rakhmon, who came to power in 1992 amid the chaos of the start of Tajikistan’s five-year civil war, has made energy independence the key plank of his campaign, in particular ensuring the construction of his vastly ambitious pet project, the Rogun hydroelectric dam.
But he also has deeply acrimonious relations with powerful Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, who has accused Tajikistan of trying to rob his country of water resources and effectively warned that the building of the Rogun dam could lead to war.
After his initial wartime appointment by the Tajik Supreme Soviet in 1992, Rakhmon enjoyed easy re-elections in 1994, 1999 and 2006. With the Tajik presidential mandate now seven years, he could potentially stay in power until 2020.