Text of report by Iranian radio from Mashhad on 29th September

Tajikistan's Central Electoral Commission has registered three
presidential candidates: incumbent President Emomali Rahmonov;
Sayfiddin Turayev, the leader of the unregistered Congress of
People's Unity Party of Tajikistan; and Sulton Quvvatov, the
former chairman of the Tax Committee from the Democratic Party
of Tajikistan of the Tehran faction, Iranian radio reported on
29th September. The Islamic Rebirth Party nominated the
minister of economy and foreign economic relations, Davlat
Usmon, after its re-registration on 29th September. Usmon's
nomination may "change the balance of votes" in favour of one
of the candidates, the radio said. The following is the text of
the commentary by Iranian radio from Mashhad on 29th September:

[Presenter] After several days of debates on the first
problem in Tajikistan's election campaign, it was announced on
Wednesday [29th September] that the Central Electoral [and
Referendum] Commission has registered nominated candidates to
the post of the president. Here are the details by our
colleague, Rahmat Karim Davlat:

[Davlat] According to the results, three candidates for
the post of the president of the Republic of Tajikistan:
[incumbent President] Emomali Rahmonov [nominated by the
People's Democratic Party and supported by some parties and
public organizations]; Sayfiddin Turayev [the leader of the
unregistered Congress of People's Unity Party of Tajikistan,
nominated by the Party of Justice]; and Sulton Quvvatov [former
chairman of the Tax Committee from the Democratic Party of
Tajikistan of the Tehran faction] have received permission from
the Central Electoral Commission so far and are striving to
collect 150,000 signatures of the electorate to win a seat.

The Islamic Rebirth Party of Tajikistan held its
extraordinary congress this morning [29th September] after its
rules and programme were endorsed by the Ministry of Justice
and the party was re-registered. So, there are no obstacles in
the way of the large-scale activity of the Islamic Rebirth
Party.

The party chairman, Sayed Abdullo Nuri, says that the
party's extraordinary congress, after its re-registration, is
to adjust the party congress' decision on nominating a
candidate to the post of president to meet the requirements of
the law and demands by officials from the Justice Ministry
because Justice Ministry officials had claimed that the party
had no right to nominate its candidate without re-registration.
The Islamic Rebirth Party of Tajikistan adopted a decision
at its extraordinary congress today to nominate the earlier
nominated Davlat Usmon to the post of president. It is possible
that the balance of votes will change in favour of one of the
candidates with Davlat Usmon's entrance into the arena of the
campaign. He may have influence in central and eastern regions.
The overwhelming majority of the electorate and supporters of
Emomali Rahmonov may be divided between Sulton Quvvatov and
Davlat Usmon. And another candidate may appear on the arena.
Otherwise, one can say, taking into account experts' opinion,
that it is possible this turn of events may increase Turayev's
chances.

Voice and Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dushanbe .
Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mashhad, in
Persian 1600 gmt 29 Sep 99
BBC Mon CAU 300999/** JF/KG/MI