Text of report by the Tajik news agency Asia-Plus on 27th
September

The chairman of the [Tajik] Central Election Referendum
Commission, Mirzoali Boltuyev, told journalists in the
afternoon of 26th September that the referendum on adopting
amendments to the country's constitution may be considered
valid. According to him, as of 1200 [local time, 0700 gmt], 58
per cent of the electorate had turned out. A total of 2,813,000
voters throughout the country have the right to vote. We remind
you that 68 electoral constituencies and 2,700 polling stations
were set up throughout the country. Polling stations were also
set up abroad: in Moscow, [the Belarus capital] Minsk, [the
former Kazakh capital] Almaty, [the Turkmen capital] Ashkhabad,
Bonn, and New York.

Political parties and movements had expressed their views
on the package of amendments and addenda [to the constitution]
long before the referendum. For example, the People's
Democratic Party has unambiguously come out in support of
amendments. The Islamic Rebirth Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) has
also supported the package, though it does not agree with many
of its paragraphs. The leader of the Islamic Rebirth Party of
Tajikistan, Sayed Abdullo Nuri, has noted that his party
supports the amendments "for the sake of accord and unity".
Parties and movements, which make up the Consultative Council
(the Communist Party, Democratic Party and the Party of Justice
and also the Congress of Popular Unity of Tajikistan), have
come out categorically against amendments and addenda [to the
constitution]. It will be known this evening how the electorate
have cast their vote. The Central Election Referendum

Commission has assured that the count would be finished by 1700
[local time, 1300 gmt].

Source: Asia-Plus news agency, Dushanbe, in Russian 1112 gmt 27
Sep 99
BBC Mon CAU 270999/**AJBA/MI