Voters have
cast ballots in Tajikistan for a new parliament likely to be held by President
Emomali Rakhmon's secularists. Many migrant Tajiks have returned to the Central
Asian nation because of Russia's economic slump.
Deutsche Welle, 1 March 2015
Ex-Soviet
Tajikistan voted on Sunday with few signs of genuine parliamentary opposition
to the 22-year-old rule of President Rakhmon. Election results are expected on
Monday morning local time.
Campaigning
had been hardly visible, said monitors of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). They added that online news sources had been
"intermittently blocked" and local journalists were practicing
"self-censorship," fearing intimidation.
Rakhmon's
secular government defeated Islamist rebels in a bitter 1992-97 civil war. In
the last election in 2010, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT),
which includes many former fighters, won only two seats.
Its leader,
Muhiddin Kabiri, said the IRPT hope to win at least five seats to form its own
parliamentary caucus or faction - despite what he said were attempts to
"blacken" the party's reputation via social media.
Firm hold
in past parliament
Rakhmon won a fourth term as president in 2013 |
Since 2010,
Rakhmon's People's Democratic Party has held 55 mandates in the 63-seat
Assembly of Representatives, parliament's lower chamber.
The
president himself was re-elected in 2013 to a fourth seven-year term.
Voters
thronged to polling stations in sunny weather in the capital Dushanbe on
Sunday, with some expressing fears about their economic prospects.
Extra jobs
for returning migrants
During
campaigning, the government promised 200,000 extra jobs for Tajiks returning
from Russia, where manual jobs, such as cleaning and snow clearing, no longer
generate adequate remittances given the ruble's sharp decline.
Money sent
to families back home has until recently accounted for up to half of
Tajikistan's gross domestic product (GDP).
Russia's
economy has suffered under Western sanctions linked to the Ukraine crisis and
plunging prices worldwide for oil and gas sales.
A migrant
workers' association in the western Russian city of Saint Petersburg said last
week that migrants from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were increasingly adverse to
"meager" pay.
Social
tensions
Tajik
political analysts have warned that social tensions could rise further in
Tajikistan as a result.
Alexander
Knyazev, a Central Asian analyst, said a return of a large number of disgruntled
workers might leave President Rakhmon facing social unrest.
Tajikistan,
a mountainous nation of 8.3 million people, hosts 7,000 Russian soldiers,
making it the largest contingent stationed abroad outside Crimea.
ipj/gsw (dpa, Reuters, AFP)
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