DUSHANBE, April 26, Asia-Plus - Four candidates have been registered to run in two May 20 parliamentary by-elections.

Nazira Safarova, a chief specialist with the organizational department of the Khatlon government, told Asia-Plus that the by-election will be held in Jomi and Yovon constituencies.

According to her, Safar Safarov, Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), nominated by ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDPT), will contest the seat representing the Jomi constituency in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) with Nemat Kholmurodov, deputy chairman of the Jomi district, nominated by the Agrarian Party (APT). 

In the Yovon constituency, deputy Khatlon prosecutor Mahmadamin Hisoriyev, nominated by the PDPT, will compete for vacant seat in parliament with Rustam Nazarov, teacher at Tajik Transport Institute, nominated the Party of Economic Reforms.  

We will recall that members of the PDPT won in three April 1 parliamentary by-elections.  In the Hamadoni constituency, Safarali Gulov won with 96 percent of the vote, with his opponent, Abdulqodir Hasanpour of the Islamic Revival Party, garnering just 2 percent of the vote.  In the remaining two by-elections, in Dushanbe and Kulob, the PDPT candidates ran unopposed.