Excerpts from report by Iranian radio from Mashhad on 12th March
The most important topic in Tajikistan's political life today is, in the
first instance, the holding of the Sunday 12th March runoff elections of
representatives to the Assembly of Representatives [lower house] of the
Tajik parliament in 12 districts and the nomination of candidates to the
Tajik parliament's upper house, the National Assembly, to be held on 26th
March.

[passage omitted: repeat of report about annulling election results in
Kofarnihon and Khojamaston electoral districts]

Now, here is our colleague, Rahmatkarim Davlat, reporting from Dushanbe:

[Davlat] When the elections or runoff elections in remaining 12 electoral
districts were only one day away, on the recommendation of the
Prosecutor-General's Office the CERC annulled the election results in
Kofarnihon electoral district and cancelled the district commission's
decision on the registration of candidates. A Communist Party
representative and the deputy head of Kofarnihon District and the People's
Democratic Party representative would have taken part in the second round
of the elections in this District. The CERC's decision says that there had
been serious violations in the process of registering candidates and of the
law on elections to the assembly. At the same time, it was reported that
the Asht electoral district commission barred one of the candidates from
the Communist Party from taking part in the second round of the elections,
alleging that the candidate's proxies were campaigning on polling day in
breach of the law.

Several days ago, the CERC also annulled the elections results in
Khojamaston [electoral] district because Khoja Karimov had won 90 per cent
of the votes in the elections against a representative from the president's
People's Democratic Party.

The deputy chairman of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, Abduali
Abdulloyev, says the actual reason for rejecting the mandates of candidates
from their party in two electoral districts was the chance that they would
win in the elections. The government and the ruling party were trying to
avoid an increase in the number of Communist Party representatives in
parliament. Mr Abdulloyev says:

[Abdulloyev] The main reason for this is that if they [candidates from
Communist Party] did not have a chance, they would not pass to the second
round [of elections]. When they did pass to the second round, their
opponents were frightened and district commissions adopted this decision.
The reason is that communists have a better chance. Therefore, the rulers
[ruling party] are afraid of our candidates.

[Davlat] However, it has to be said that to date, the law-enforcement
agencies and the CERC have not given any positive or satisfactory reply to
any of the numerous complaints from citizens and political parties on
violations in the process of elections. All this and the logic raises a
question: Why the CERC and the country's prosecutor's office had not
cancelled the name of the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan from
ballot papers when it violated current regulations and the law by
canvassing and propagating through television on the banned day - that is
to say one day before the elections?

Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mashhad, in Dari 0330 gmt 12
Mar 00
BBC Mon CAU 130300/** AJBA/AS/UU