Voting Brisk as Tajiks Pick Parliament

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Voting was brisk Sunday in parliamentary elections expected to strengthen the president's nearly two-decade grip on power in Tajikistan.

But the elections also have the potential to increase the influence of the only legally registered Islamic party in Central Asia.

More than half of the 3.5 million eligible voters cast their ballots by midday, the Central Elections Commission said.

Many of those voting in the capital, Dushanbe, said they backed the Islamic Revival Party, which currently has only two deputies in the 63-seat parliament.

"They have pure intentions, they have a pure heart and people believe in them," said Badriddin Rustamov, an engineer. "I don't know the leader of the party, whom I've only seen on television, but I feel that I can trust him and he would do a better job."

Party leader Muhiddin Kabiri said he believed that the party could win at least 10 seats if the voting was fair.

But he complained that his supporters had already registered "numerous irregularities" during the voting by midafternoon.

"Those include multiple voting, voting for family members and hindering the work of our observers by elections officials," Kabiri said.

A Western observer said he saw an opposition candidate from Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon's home constituency of Dangara being prevented from voting by local election officials.

"The candidate showed up to vote only to find out that someone had voted for him already," the observer said, adding that he had witnessed other irregularities such as multiple voting and ballot stuffing.

Mukhibullo Dajanov, a senior official at the Central Elections Commission, said it had not registered any serious violations of the law.

"There are reports of irregularities but not on a mass scale," Dajanov said. "We react to all those reports and take appropriate measures."

The governing People's Democratic Party, which now holds 52 seats, is expected to run away with the election.

Alidzhon Khakimov, a 59-year-old economist, said he voted for the governing party. "This party is our well-being, our future," he said. "They are building the Rogun hydroelectric plant for us and will bring us to energy independence."

The plant would allow the country of 7 million to meet its own electricity needs and to export power to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There was little campaigning or political debate in the run-up to the vote, which was overshadowed by a nationwide campaign to raise money for the construction of Rogun.

Some Tajiks working for state-run entities have complained that the government was withholding part of their wages — which average $70 a month — and investing money in Rogun without their consent.

Rakhmon, supported by Russia, fought a civil war with Islamists and their allies in the 1990s that claimed about 100,000 lives and devastated Tajikistan's economy.

About a million Tajiks, or half of the work force, work abroad, mostly in Russia, to feed their families. The global crisis has put Tajikistan under fresh stress, cutting remittances from migrant laborers by a third last year.

(AP, Reuters)