Baku, Azerbaijan, March 1
Trend:
The parliamentary election in Tajikistan is declared valid.
As of 15:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours), around 3,210,000 people (74.33 percent) of the total population of Tajikistan voted, the head of the Central Election Commission Shermuhammad Shohien told reporters. The total number of voters in the country is about 4.4 million people, Asia-Plus agency reported.
The polling stations will be open for voting till 20:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours). The ballots are published at four languages: Tajik, Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Russian.
Around 63 MPs: 41 from single-mandate constituencies and 22 - on the list of political parties in a single republican constituency are elected to the lower house of the parliament.
Around 285 candidates (103 on party lists and 182 single-mandate constituencies), including 80 self-nominated candidates are competing. There are also 30 women candidates.
The eight officially registered political parties, namely, the ruling People's Democratic Party, the Communist Party, the Islamic Renaissance Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Agrarian Party, the Socialist Party, the Democratic Party and the Party of Economic Reforms, are involved in the election process.
A party which will overcome the five-percent threshold in the republican constituency (on party lists) will be elected.
Around 528 international observers, more than 1,000 - local observers are monitoring the election. More than 100 leading foreign media correspondents cover the election. The observers will make a conclusion on March 2 immediately after the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda announces the preliminary voting results.