Elections in Tajikistan 2020 Presidential Election Frequently Asked Questions Europe and Eurasia International Foundation for Electoral Systems 2011 Crystal Drive | Floor 10 | Arlington, VA 22202 | www.IFES.org October 9, 2020 Frequently Asked Questions When is Election Day? ................................................................................................................................... 1 What is the current political situation? ........................................................................................................ 1 Why is the election important? What is at stake? ........................................................................................ 1 Who are the candidates and what is the campaign timeline? ..................................................................... 3 Who is eligible to run as a candidate? .......................................................................................................... 4 Who can vote in this election?...................................................................................................................... 4 What laws regulate presidential elections in Tajikistan?.............................................................................. 5 How will the campaigns be financed? .......................................................................................................... 5 What is the election management body? What are its powers? ................................................................. 5 What are election authorities doing to safeguard the elections and voters during the COVID-19 pandemic? ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 How many polling places will be set up on Election Day? ............................................................................ 6 What is the media environment? ................................................................................................................. 7 Who can observe during Election Day? How can they get accreditation? ................................................... 7 How will election disputes be adjudicated? ................................................................................................. 8 When will official results be announced? ..................................................................................................... 8 What provisions are in place to support the equal rights of voters with disabilities? ................................. 8 Resources ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 IFES in Tajikistan ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Disclosure ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 Elections in Tajikistan: 2020 Presidential Election Frequently Asked Questions When is Election Day? The election for president of Tajikistan will take place on October 11, 2020. The upper and lower houses of the Majlisi Oli (Supreme Assembly) – the parliamentary body of Tajikistan – voted on August 6 to hold the election nearly one month before the traditional date for presidential elections in November. This will be the sixth presidential election in Tajikistan’s post-Soviet independent history, and the third presidential election since a 2003 constitutional amendment extended the presidential term from five to seven years. The previous presidential election was held on November 6, 2013. The president will be directly elected by absolute majority and must secure over 50 percent of all votes cast on Election Day to win in the first round. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of votes, a second round will be held between the two candidates who receive the most votes. The second round must take place within one month, but no sooner than 15 days after the first round, or between October 26 and November 11 for this cycle. The Constitution of Tajikistan establishes that more than half of all registered voters must vote for the election to be valid; if this threshold is not reached, the election is considered “failed” and new first-round elections will be called. Voters who will not be in their home districts on Election Day may vote early, up to two weeks in advance of the election, at their respective District Election Commissions. What is the current political situation? Tajikistan is official a republic, with three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Tajikistan has a strong, semipresidential system in which officially the 96-member parliament and the Supreme Court exert checks and balances on the president, but in which factually President Emomali Rahmon wields considerable influence and authority over all three branches of government. The parliament is a bicameral legislature consisting of 33 seats in the upper, indirectly elected house and 63 seats in the lower, directly elected house. Members of parliament serve five-year terms. The president appoints the members of the Supreme Court and other key judicial positions. Rahmon has been in office since first being elected president in 1994 amid the country’s five-year civil war, and in recent years has moved to stifle remaining political opposition and independent traditional and online media. The country remains stable on the surface, though a difficult economic situation, declining education system and continued out-migration of citizens bodes ill for the country’s long-term prospects. Rahmon is still credited by many for leading the country out of the civil war. However, for many of the country’s 8.87 million inhabitants, many of whom are too young to remember the war or the Soviet period, the rampant unemployment and growing social distress is dire, with few immediate prospects for improvement. Why is the election important? What is at stake? The presidential election highlights current issues in Tajikistan and how the current government, namely President Emomali Rahmon, has managed them during his current seven-year tenure. The pre-election period also allows, in theory at least, a rare opportunity for opponents to outline their alternative visions for the country’s future and how they would address the myriad challenges. This would allow Page 1 of 9 Elections in Tajikistan: 2020 Presidential Election Frequently Asked Questions voters to compare candidates’ competing policy platforms and priorities and make an informed choice. The winning candidate will lead Tajikistan for the next seven years, during which it will have been independent for 30 years (2021) and stable for 30 years since the end of the Tajik Civil War (2027). Tajikistan has had only one president since the Civil War-era election of 1994 ushered in President Rahmon (Rahmonov at the time). Due to changes in the Constitution approved by a nationwide referendum in 2016, Rahmon is eligible to run indefinitely for the presidency. While Rahmon is allowed to run for an unlimited number of terms of office, the Constitution restricts other presidential officeholders to two seven-year terms.1 Tajikistan has a strong presidential system modeled after other Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation. Within this system, the president is the single most important and influential decision- maker, setting foreign policy, strategic development and overseeing a domestic agenda focusing on national identity and enforcing social and traditional norms. President Rahmon’s People’s Democratic Party currently occupies nearly 75 percent of seats in the directly elected lower house of parliament. Voters’ most pressing concern as they look ahead to the presidential election is the economic situation. Tajikistan is mired in an economic downturn, as monetary remittances have declined during the coronavirus pandemic and Tajik hydroelectric energy and other exports have slowed. The country remains dependent on the Russian Federation for trade and investment, with China playing an increasingly important role. Nearly 50 percent of the county’s gross domestic product is generated by monetary remittances sent by labor migrants working seasonal jobs outside the country,2 chiefly Russia, and to a growing extent Turkey and Middle Eastern countries. The dependency on remittances has grown as a result of COVID-19, while job opportunities and the ability of labor migrants to travel to host countries have decreased during the pandemic. While initially reporting an extremely low number of cases of COVID-19, particularly relative to neighboring states, it is suspected that Tajikistan had been underreporting the genuine total. Meanwhile, there had been a sudden spike in reports of “pneumonia,” which possibly were the result of misdiagnoses, intentional or otherwise. The presence of COVID-19 has created unique challenges for Tajikistan, which like other countries was ill-prepared to manage the pandemic and suffers from a chronically under-resourced public health sector. The Central Commission on Elections and Referenda will need to create a safe environment for voters, observers and election officers so they will feel assured of voting in person on Election Day. Regional affairs will also play heavily into the election campaign. To that end, Tajikistan recently reestablished