Tajikistan - Political Parties
Tajikistan's politics are dominated by President Imomali Rahmonov and his People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT). The constitutional checks and balances on executive power are rarely exercised and there is no true political plurality. The unicameral, 230-seat Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan elected in 1990 included 227 communists and three members from other parties. This body chose Tajikistan's first president, communist part chief Rahmon Nabiyev. In the first direct presidential election, held in 1991, Nabiyev won in a rigged vote. An unpopular leader in a volatile country, Nabiyev was overthrown in 1992 and fled the country as it fell into civil war.
In the interim, the former chairman of the Supreme Soviet, Imomali Rahmonov, was nominal chief of state. In the presidential election of November 1994, - won a vote that was condemned by opposition parties and Western observers as fraudulent. Rahmonov's only opponent was the antireformist Abdumalik Abdullojanov, who had founded an opposition party after being forced to resign as Rahmonov's prime minister in 1993 under criticism for the country's poor economic situation.
As long as Tajikistan was a Soviet republic, political power resided in the Communist Party of Tajikistan, not in the state. Until 1991 the party was an integral part of the CPSU, subordinate to the central party leadership. In the years before independence, several opposition parties appeared with various agendas. Since the civil war, the opposition's official participation has been limited severely, although some parties remain active abroad.
During the 1920s, Tajik communist party membership increased substantially. But in the following decades, the percentage of Tajik membership in the Communist Party of Tajikistan rose and fell with the cycle of purges and revitalizations. Throughout the Soviet period, however, Russians retained dominant positions. For example, the top position of party first secretary was reserved for an individual of the titular ethnic group of the republic, but the powerful position of second secretary always belonged to a Russian or a member of another European nationality.
In the mid-1980s, the Communist Party of Tajikistan had nearly 123,000 members, of whom about two-thirds represented urban regions, with subordinate provincial, district, and municipal organizations in all jurisdictions. The Communist Youth League (Komsomol), which provided most of the future party members, had more than 550,000 members in 1991. The end of the Soviet era witnessed a waning of interest in party membership, however, despite the privileges and opportunities the party could offer. By 1989 many districts were losing members much faster than new members could be recruited. In August 1991, the failure of the coup by hard-liners in Moscow against President Gorbachev left the Communist Party of Tajikistan even less popular and more vulnerable than it had been before. However, although it was suspended in 1991, the party in Tajikistan was able to retain its property during its suspension. Just before sanctions were imposed, the party changed the adjective in its name from communist to socialist. In December 1991, the party reassumed its original name and began a vigorous campaign to recapture its earlier monopoly of power.
After the civil war, the communist party remained the country's largest party, although its membership was far smaller than it had been in the late Soviet era. In the early 1990s, the party rebuilt its organizational network, from the primary party organizations in the workplace to the countrywide leadership. Communist candidates did well in the legislative elections of 1995, although they did not win an outright majority.
The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s saw the open establishment of opposition parties representing a variety of secular and religious views. In 1991 and 1992, these groups engaged in an increasingly bitter power struggle with those who wanted to preserve the old order in substance, if not in name. By the summer of 1992, the battle had escalated into an open civil war that would claim tens of thousands of lives.
A branch of the Islamic Rebirth Party (IRP) was established in Tajikistan in 1990 with an initial membership of about 10,000. The Tajikikistan IRP was established as an open organization, although it was rumored to have existed underground since the late 1970s. The IRP received legal recognition as a political party in the changed political climate that existed after the 1991 Moscow coup attempt. Despite its links to the party of the same name with branches throughout the Soviet Union, the Tajikistan IRP focused explicitly on republic-level politics and national identity rather than supranational issues. When the antireformists gained power in December 1992, they again banned the IRP. At that point, the party claimed 20,000 members, but no impartial figures were available for either the size of its membership or the extent of its public support. After the civil war, the party changed its name to the Movement for Islamic Revival.
Two other parties, the Democratic Party and Rastokhez (Rebirth), also were banned, with the result that no opposition party had official sanction since early 1993. The Democratic Party, which has a secular, nationalist, and generally pro-Western agenda, was founded by intellectuals in 1990 and modeled on the contemporaneous parliamentary democratization movement in Moscow. In 1995 the party moved its headquarters from Tehran to Moscow. Although the government nominally lifted its ban on the Democratic Party in 1995, in practice the party remained powerless inside the republic. In early 1996, it joined several other parties in signing an agreement of reconciliation with the Dushanbe government.
Like the Democratic Party, Rastokhez was founded in 1990 with substantial support from the intellectual community; its visibility as an opposition popular front made Rastokhez a scapegoat for the February 1990 demonstrations and riots in Dushanbe. In 1992 Rastokhez, the Democratic Party, and another party, La"li Badakhshon, played an important role in the opposition movement that forced President Nabiyev to resign. The leadership of the much-weakened Rastokhez movement also made peace with the Dushanbe regime early in 1996.
La"li Badakhshon is a secularist, democratic group that was founded in 1991. The chief aim of the party, which represents mainly Pamiris, is greater autonomy for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province. La"li Badakhshon joined with the other three opposition groups in the demonstrations of spring 1992.
Since the civil war, several new political parties have functioned legally in Tajikistan. Some are organized around interest groups such as businessmen, some around powerful individuals such as former prime minister Abdumalik Abdullojanov. All of these parties lack the means to influence the political process, however. For instance, the most important of them, Abdullojanov's Popular Unity Party, was prevented by the government from mounting an effective campaign in the legislative elections of February 1995.
In 1997 Rakhmonov weakened his chief opposition emerging from the civil war, the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), by naming movement leader Akbar Turajonzoda a deputy prime minister. In the ensuing years,the UTO was eclipsed politically by its main component organization, the Islamic Rebirth Party (IRP). The governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP) gained strength as some opposition party leaders joined the government and others were disqualified from participation in elections.
In the early 2000s, independent political parties continued to exist, but their operations were circumscribed and their influence marginal. The Communist Party of Tajikistan, a nominal opposition party that had supported President Rakhmonov on most issues, lost support since 2000. The liberal, pro-market Democratic Party also lost support. In 2003 the IRP lost its chief opposition issue as the ban on religious parties ended.Nevertheless, in 2006 parties still could not receive aid from religious institutions, and tension remained between the government and Islamic factions. In 2006 the IRP was the most influential opposition party in Tajikistan and the only religiously affiliated party represented in the national legislature of a Central Asian country. After the death of long-time IRP leader Said Abdullo Nuriin 2006, a possible split emerged from the struggle for party leadership.
In 2005 Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, head of the Democratic Party, received a long prison term for terrorism after being abducted from exile, and in 2006 his party was replaced on the official list by a government-backed splinter group, Vatan. In 2006 six parties, including one faction of the Democratic Party, were banned, and a total of eight parties were registered.
In advance of February, 2010 Parliamentary elections, Tajik opposition parties initiated hopeful campaigns despite systemic obstacles and their own disorganization. The law in place during the fixed 2005 Parliamentary elections has not been changed, despite formal request for revision made by opposition parties. The outgoing Majlisi Namoyamdagon was dominated by President Rahmon's pro-government party, the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT), which held 46 seats (another 8 seats are held by nominally independent deputies who vote with the PDPT). Twenty-two deputies to the Majlisi Namoyamdagon were elected via party list, while 41 are elected based on individual mandates from electoral districts. International organizations remained involved in promoting fair elections. The OSCE and EU rolled out elections initiatives, including debates.
The Islamic Renaissance Party planned to run an active, national campaign with appeal beyond its religious base while staying on the government's good side. The Communist Party was bullish on its election prospects and not afraid to vocalize opposition to entrenched policies. The secular, Democratic parties were splintered and could hope to win a single Parliamentary seat, at best, if they can unite their supporters. While most opposition leaders were skeptical that President Rahmon will fulfill his pledge to be "guarantor" of free and fair elections, they all planned to participate in the elections at all levels and call on the international community to ensure that the Tajik government allows a fair poll.
Leaders of opposition parties listed numerous obstacles to free and fair polls, including limited access to television, biased local election commissions, and onerous candidacy fees. According to Tajik law, each party is allotted 30 minutes of airtime during election season, which is the only television coverage the opposition parties receive in five years. Local election commissions, which run polling stations and certify initial vote totals, are generally made up of low-level civil servants who take their orders from the government-appointed local administrator (hukumat). Democratic and Social Democratic party leaders said that a new 7,000 somoni (roughly $1,600) filing fee for each candidate to the Majlisi Namoyamdagon will limit their ability to finance campaigns.
The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) was once considered to be the most viable political challenger to the PDPT, but had not used the two seats it won in the 2005 Parliamentary election to organize opposition to any major government initiatives, including the restrictive Law on Religion. The IRPT's reticence has led many observers to conclude that it is no longer an "opposition party." Independent Majlisi Milli (Upper House) Deputy Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda said the IRPT hopes to be granted an additional couple of seats in the 2010 polls as a reward for its good behavior. The IRPT has 33,000 members, but the Party claims an additional 40,000 supporters. Taking a page from the color movements in the Former Soviet Union, the IRPT would dress its activists in "light blue" rather than Islamic green to send a message that the "We look at life more broadly than it seems." The Party hopes to distribute blue scarves to its supporters during its campaign and disseminate party messages via email and text messages. The main IRPT issues in the campaign would be fighting corruption, labor migration, religion, separation of powers within the government, and civil rights. The IRPT was not seeking to form a coalition with other political parties.
The Communist Party of Tajikistan emerged as the most active dissenting voice in the outgoing Majlisi Namoyamdagon and hoped to expand its four deputy caucus. Its leader, Shodi Shabdolov, had directly criticized the government's budget and energy policies, including the provision of a massive share of Tajikistan's electricity to the state-managed aluminum company, TALCO. The party avoided openly challenging the President, however Deputy party leader Jabbor Ahmedov was one of only two parliamentarians who, in the 2005 elections, upset a government-backed candidate to win a seat in the lower house.
The Communist Party, claiming 40,000 members, would compete in the February elections at all levels, focusing on economic and political reform. The Tajik Communist Party's shifting ideology 18 years after the fall of the Soviet Union called for selling off run-down state enterprises that have been a drain on the economy since independence. There were 140 big subsidies that need to be examined and possibly removed. They also raised the alarming dropout rates of female students, calling for mandatory study for all students through the twelfth grade. (Currently girls are allowed to drop out after the ninth grade.) They conceded that it was a mistake for the Soviet Union to oppose religion.
The Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT), supported by intellectuals in Dushanbe, Khujand, and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), is known as the "Party of Lawyers" and is the last secular, democratic, independent opposition party standing after the government-engineered collapse of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT). The party, with 6,850 members, is dominated by its quixotic founder, Rahmatillo Zoyirov, whose public statements range from declaring the government illegitimate to calling for the President to appoint him Minister of Justice as a political "compromise." In press interviews, Zoyirov proposed that the President appoint a representative from each of the eight legal political parties to the Majlisi Milli, presumably including Zoyirov. These statements keep him in the independent press, but only 5% of the Tajik population reads newspapers. The SDPT competed in the elections as a party list and strategically ran candidates for individual mandate seats in areas where it has significant support, such as GBAO.
The Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT) was founded in 1990 as the country's first democratic opposition party, but has fallen on hard times since the government imprisoned its founder, Muhammadruzi Iskandarov, in December 2005. After Iskandarov was sentenced to 25 years for crimes against the state, the government appointed Masud Sobirov as the DPT's chairman. Considered a government stooge by most DPT members, Sobirov had legal control of the party; he is known as "a general with no troops." Rahmatullo Valiyev, the tired, bitter, and angry representative of Iskandarov's remaining supporters, complained that the international community has given Rahmon a blank check to create an authoritarian state in the interest of maintaining stability next to Afghanistan. Valiyev said Iskandarov was treated well in confinement because the government knew his case was being followed by the international community. Iskandarov knew he would not be included in the recently announced Presidential amnesty of 10,000 prisoners. In any event, according to Valiyev, Iskandarov does not want to be amnestied as he has not committed any crime in the first place.
The remaining three legal political parties, the Socialist Party of Tajikistan (SPT), the Agrarian Party of Tajikistan (APT) and Party of Economic Development of Tajikistan (PEDT), are small pro-government parties. Like the Democratic Party, the SPT split when the Ministry of Justice declared the legal head of the party to be a pro-Rahmon loyalist, in this case notorious alcoholic Abduhalim Ghaffarov. These parties have largely served as vehicles for self-promotion. The Chair of the PEDT was named Minister of Transportation in October as a reward for his party's public support of government policies. If one of these parties wins a seat in the Majlisi Namoyamdagon, it should be interpreted as an attempt by the government to simulate parliamentary pluralism.
On paper, the elections looked to be a three-party race, as the Communists and Islamic Renaissance Party each hoped to peel a few seats from the ruling PDPT's super-majority. While there is no precedent for a free and fair democratic election in Tajikistan, it was heartening that opposition parties managed to stay alive and plan campaigns for the February elections. despite the spirited statements by the opposition, the consistent national mood is that the Parliament after February will look a lot like the Parliament now: stacked with Rahmon's cronies. In fact, not a few political observers believed the winners of individual seats had already been chosen, and the elections themselves will be something less than even a pro forma exercise.
Tajikistan's top election body declared the parliamentary election in the ex-Soviet republic valid, with more than 50% of eligible voters casting their votes. The election commission said 51.4% of registered voters had come to the polls. Tajikistan's ruling People's Democratic Party, the largest among the eight officially registered political parties in Tajikistan numbering 85,000 members and led by Rakhmon, received 54 of the 63 seats in the Parliament after elections on 28 February 2010. The People's Democratic Party received 70.6% of the votes, according to the Central Election Commission. The opposition Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and Communist Party of Tajikistan had two seats each in parliament.
The polls were monitored by more than 25,000 local and about 540 international observers, representing the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement that parliamentary elections in Tajikistan failed to meet many international requirements, citing numerous irregularities during Sunday's elections, including "a high prevalence of family and proxy voting and cases of ballot box stuffing."
The main impediment to fully democratic elections was the disorganization of the parties themselves and general public ignorance of voting procedures and rights.
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