The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) began registering candidates for the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower house of parliament) today, Navrouz Samadzoda, the head of CCER’ office, told Asia-Plus in an interview.

According to him, the process of official registration of candidates will last until February 9.  After that all the officially registered candidates can carry out a full-fledged election campaign in their constituencies.

The election campaign officially starts once a candidate or a party list is registered and ends 24 hours before elections.  

The PEL grants each nationwide list 40 minutes and each single-mandate candidate 20 minutes of free airtime on state-owned television or radio. 

Besides, political parties and single-mandate candidates can publish campaign materials in republican, regional and district newspapers free of charge.

The CCER decreed that each party and candidate could receive up to eight A4 printed pages in state newspapers free of charge. 

Parliamentary elections will take place in Tajikistan on March 1, 2020.  The Majlisi Namoyandagon has 63 members, elected for a five-year term in, 22 by proportional representation (party list) and 41 in single-seat constituencies.