Tajikistan's Central Electoral Commission chairman Mirzoali Boltuev said on 28 February that the preliminary vote count suggests that the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan, headed by President Imomali Rakhmonov, polled some 70 percent of the vote in the previous day's elections to the lower chamber of the new parliament, Reuters reported. The Communist Party came second and the Islamic Renaissance Party third. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the UN-OSCE election observation mission said in Dushanbe on 28 February that high estimates of voter turnout before polling stations closed on 27 February cast doubt on the integrity of the poll outcome, Reuters reported. The mission noted that "in general, political plurality was assured," but it added that "Tajikistan must improve the process in order to meet the minimum democratic standards for equal, fair, free, secret, transparent and accountable elections." Spokesmen for the Communist Party and the Islamic Renaissance Party claimed there was widespread vote rigging and that party representatives were barred from observing the vote at some polling stations.

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