Tajikistan strongman Rakhmon wins election
October 12, 2020
Tajikistani leader Emomali Rakhmon won the country's presidential election on Sunday with over 90% of the vote, securing him another seven-year term, according to preliminary results.
According to the Central Electoral Commission, the 68-year-old authoritarian leader secured 90.9% of votes in Sunday's poll, with a turnout of more than 85%.
Rakhmon is set to overtake Kazakhstan's recently retired Nursultan Nazarbayev as the former Soviet Union's longest-ruling leader.
Rakhmon has run the nation of 9.5 million people since 1992, a period that included a civil war.
He has gradually strengthened his grip and a 2016 constitutional reform removed a limit on the number of terms he could serve.
No match
The Central Asian country has no independent opposition nor free media.
Four other candidates — members of the docile lower House of Parliament — were officially running in Sunday's election. The competitors, however, have refrained from criticizing their president.
With the official title of "Founder of Peace and National Unity — Leader of the Nation" — the election was considered almost a guaranteed victory for Rakhmon in his fifth presidential poll.
"Peace is the main thing. If we have peace it means everything will be alright," Safar Mallayev, 66, a supporter, told French news agency AFP. He said he voted for Rakhmon because of his "enormous experience."
Many voters in the capital Dushanbe told AFP that they intended to vote for Rakhmon, citing the importance of peace after more than two decades after the end of the country's civil war.
Tajikstan remains one of the poorest countries in Central Asia. Though its economy has been growing 6% or more for the last decade, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development forecasts a 1% contraction this year – the first in 23 years – due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tajikstan maintains close economic ties with Russia and is also home to Moscow's biggest military base abroad. China is also another important donor, investor and creditor for the Central Asian country.
mvb/aw (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
mbb/aw (Reuters, AP, AFP)