Rahmonov is Firm Favourite, as Expected

Voting patterns in Tajikistan’s November 6 presidential election suggest that as most observers predicted, the incumbent Imomali Rahmonov has won fairly unanimous support.



Ahead of the election, it was pretty obvious who would win because there was no strong opposition candidate on hand to offer Rahmonov any competition.



The major opposition parties ruled themselves out more than a month before election day. The Islamic Rebirth Party, the only opposition group apart from the Communists to be represented in parliament, announced that it would not be nominating a candidate, but would take part in the election as an observer, while the Social Democrats and the Democratic Party announced a complete boycott.



In the end, only four candidates ran against President Rahmonov. The three candidates put up by the Socialist, Agrarian and Economic Reforms parties had little chance of success. Only the Communist candidate Ismail Talbakov had any hope of winning limited support.



The majority of voters questioned by NBCentralAsia said they favoured the president. They gave a variety of motivations, but most were hopeful that life in Tajikistan would get better.



Some argued that Rahmonov’s government had already taken successful steps to improve the economic situation, and that he should be given an opportunity to complete his reforms and implement large-scale projects such as the construction of hydroelectric power stations.



Others recalled the 1992-97 civil war, which Rahmonov is credited with ending by many people in the country. Dushanbe resident Nazira Ortykova said the president deserved his job because he had been a peacemaker, saying, “We remember that when the Tajiks were killing one another, our president was able to stop this fratricidal war.”



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