Democratic Parties Multiply by Division

Until recently, two Democratic Parties existed in Tajikistan following a schism last year. Last week, one of them – the faction officially recognised by the government – underwent a further split. NBCentralAsia commentators argue that these recurrent divisions show how fragile the whole political party system is.



The schismatic Democratic Party was set up in August 2006 and Masud Sobirov was elected its leader. The party was created out of the Watan faction which Sobirov headed at the time.



The bulk of the Democrats’ membership remained with the original organisation. They continue to regard imprisoned politician Mahmadruzi Iskandarov as their chairman and under the leadership of deputy chairman Rahmatullo Valiev, they refused to acknowledge Sobirov.



However, it was Sobirov’s party that was awarded registration by the justice ministry, and it went on to nominate a presidential candidate last autumn.



On January 14, Sobirov himself was deposed in a coup reminiscent of the one that made him head of his party. A special party congress proclaimed his deputy Saidjafar Ismonov the new party chairman.



Sobirov told NBCentralAsia that he had appealed to the justice ministry to investigate the way Ismonov was appointed. He said the conduct of the party congress was legally flawed. According to Sabirov, what Ismonov is trying to do is to reshape the Democratic Party and its programme around his own group, the unregistered Progressive Youth Party.



Valiev, deputy head of the other Democratic Party, told NBCentralAsia that this latest twist served Sobirov’s party right, since in his view the faction was itself created illegally.



Other political commentators say the development may have a broader negative impact on the political party system as a whole.



Shokirjon Hakimov, deputy chairman of the Social Democratic Party, says the international community may now grow sceptical about how politically mature the Tajik parties are. He cited the example of the Socialist Party, which has been split into two camps since 2004, and warned that this must not be allowed to grow into a general trend.



Saifullo Safarov, deputy director of the Centre for Strategic Studies, says that if the Democrats continue to be riven by strife, they may be unable to take part in the 2010 parliamentary election.



“These parties must resolve their differences by election time, because no government body, not even the justice ministry, is going to be able to solve their problems for them,” he said.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)