Baku, Azerbaijan, March 2
Trend:
The ruling People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan won in the parliamentary election held on March 1 with 65.2 percent of votes, head of the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) Shermuhammad Shohien said at a press conference in Dushanbe on March 2.
The party is led by the country's President Emomali Rahmon.
CEC head added that the following parties also overcame the 5-percent barrier required for getting seats at the parliament: the Socialist Party - 5.5 percent of votes, Agrarian Party - 11.8 percent and Party of Economic Reforms - 7.6 percent, RIA Novosti reported.
"The election was held freely, democratically and in compliance with Tajikistan's law," Shohien said, adding that 3,791,827 voters or 87.7 percent of the total number of voters participated in this election.
Some 4.4 million ballots were published in four languages: Tajik, Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Russian. Tajik citizens voted at 3,209 polling stations in the county and 35 abroad, including three in Russia, in the cities of Moscow, Ufa and Yekaterinburg.
Around 63 MPs: 41 from single-mandate constituencies and 22 - on the lists of political parties in a single republican constituency are elected to the lower house of the parliament.
A total of 285 candidates (103 on party lists and 182 single-mandate constituencies), including 80 self-nominated candidates were competing. There were 30 women among the candidates.
Around 528 international observers, more than 1,000 - local observers are monitoring the election. More than 100 leading foreign media correspondents cover the election.
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 participated in the election.
Translated by LZ