Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon’s party won a fresh mandate securing 71.7 percent of votes in the parliamentary election, poll body announced on Mar 1. The voting took place on Sunday Feb 28.
The opposition Islamic Revival Party and pro-government Communists also secured some seats in Majlisi Namoyandagon, lower house of parliament, it said.
Europe’s main election watchdog  has, however, found fault with the election process and said it has failed to meet meet basic democratic standards.
‘I’m happy that election day took place in a generally good atmosphere but I’m even more disappointed that these elections failed on many basic democratic standards,’ Pia Christmas- Moller, vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said in a statement.
West is interested in the country beacuse it needs Tajikistan to transit military supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Islamic Revival Party leader Muhiddin Kabiri said Tuesday that his party won around 30 percent of the vote, and not 7.7 percent as claimed by the Central Elections Commission.  ‘We will decide whether to take part in the incoming parliament, or whether to declare a hunger strike or organize a rally’, he said.
Election officials said two parties not represented in the current parliament would still gain a seat each despite not exceeding the 5-percent threshold for party-list seats. Around 1 percent of votes garnered by smaller parties were distributed among the Agrarian Party and the Economic Reform Party, enabling them to enter parliament, the Central Elections Commission said Tuesday.
President Rakhmon, who enjoys Russia’s backing, had fought a civil war with Islamists and their allies in the 1990s which claimed about 100,000 lives and devastated Tajikistan’s economy.
About a million Tajiks, or half of the workforce, work abroad, mostly in Russia.