Battle of Backbone Mountain

Parliamentary elections were held in Tajikistan on 1 March 2020.[1] The result was a landslide victory for the ruling People's Democratic Party, which won 47 of the 63 seats. The only opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, received just 0.3% of the vote.[2]

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe was critical of the election.[2]

Electoral system

The 63 members of the Assembly of Representatives are elected by two methods: 41 members are elected in single-member constituencies using the two-round system, whilst 22 seats are elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency, with an electoral threshold of 5%.[3] Voters cast a single ballot for a candidate in their single-member constituency, with the total votes received across all constituencies used to determine the proportional seats. In each constituency, voter turnout is required to be at least 50% for the election to be declared valid.[4]

Campaign

A total of 241 candidates contested the elections, 65 for the 22 party-list seats and 176 for the 41 constituency seats.[5]

The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan was unable to participate, having been banned by the authorities over terrorism allegations in 2015.[6]

Preliminary results

PartyVotes%Seats
ConstituencyPRTotal+/–
People's Democratic Party351247–4
Party of Economic Reforms145+2
Agrarian Party347+2
Socialist Party0110
Democratic Party0110
Communist Party of Tajikistan2020
Social Democratic Party0000
Total4122630
Total votes4,245,951
Registered voters/turnout4,929,12886.14
Source: RFERL, Asia Plus

References