Tajikistan holds general elections amid international scrutiny

Over 5.5M voters eligible head to polls, 220 candidates compete for 63 parliamentary seats

Tajikistan is holding general elections on Sunday to elect members of parliament and local councils, with more than 5.5 million registered voters eligible to cast their ballots across 3,513 polling stations nationwide.

The elections will determine the composition of the lower house of parliament, the House of Representatives, as well as provincial and district municipal councils.

A total of 220 candidates from six political parties -- the People’s Democratic Party, Communist Party, Democratic Party, Party of Economic Reforms, Agrarian Party, and Socialist Party -- are competing for 63 parliamentary seats under a mixed electoral system.

Of these, 22 seats will be filled through proportional representation, while the remaining 41 will be decided through a majoritarian system.

For Tajik citizens living abroad, 36 polling stations have been set up at diplomatic missions in 28 foreign countries.

International monitoring

More than 200 international observers from organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States are monitoring the elections.

Additionally, Ahmet Yener, the chairman of Türkiye’s Supreme Election Council, is in Tajikistan with other council members to observe the voting process.

However, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is notably absent.

Last month, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights announced that “the absence of accreditation guarantees for international OSCE observers” had forced the organization to cancel its monitoring mission.

Political landscape and past election results

In the last parliamentary elections held in March 2020, the ruling People’s Democratic Party secured 47 out of 63 seats in the House of Representatives.

The Agrarian Party won seven seats, the Party of Economic Reforms five, the Communist Party two, while the Socialist Party and Democratic Party each gained one seat after surpassing the 5% electoral threshold.

As Tajikistan’s electorate votes, the results of these elections will determine the country's political direction for the coming years.

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