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Tajikistan Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Tajikistan
Official Name: Republic of Tajikistan
Capital: Dushanbe
Area: 143,100 square kilometres ( 55,251 square miles )
Major cities (Population): Dushanbe 607,000 (1990)
Population: 6,101,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 2.9 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 9 September 1991 (from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR])
Constitution: A new constitution was adopted 6 November 1994.
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
Under a constitution adopted in 1994, Tajikistan is governed by a president and a legislature. The office of the president, suspended in 1992 after former President Rakhman Nabiyev was deposed, was reinstituted by the 1994 constitution. The first elections to that office were held in the same year. The legislature, known as the Majlisi Oli (Tajik for “Supreme Assembly”), was elected in early 1995. The People's Party of Tajikistan, the successor of the Communist party of the Tadzhik Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), dominates the government, and participation by opposition parties was severely restricted in both elections. The country joined the United Nations (UN) in 1992 and is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Recent History
Following Tajikistan's independence from the former USSR, the Soviet-era government retained control of the country. A power struggle between the former Communists and an Islamic-democratic movement led to the ousting of President Rakhman Nabiyev in 1992, and precipitated a civil war between the pro-Communist peoples of northern and central Tajikistan and the Islamist forces from the east of the country and along the Afghan border. Determined intervention by Russian and Uzbek troops in 1993 drove back the rebels, and the former ex-Communist government was reinstated.
After taking power, the government launched a campaign of political repression, and opposition parties were banned—including the Lali Badakhshan party, which pushes for greater autonomy for the eastern region of Gorno-Badakshan. Opposition leaders and journalists were arrested, and the government attempted to integrate the Muslim religious hierarchy into the state structure. A draft constitution was approved in July 1994 and following a ceasefire agreement, elections were held in November, in which Imomali Rakhmanov, a member of the former Soviet government, was elected as president.
Despite the 1994 cease fire, groups of Islamic fundamentalist supporters have continued to wage small-scale guerrilla warfare across the Afghan border and in the east of the country. Huge numbers of people have been displaced by the fighting, with an estimated 100,000 refugees seeking safety in northern Afghanistan. A further 40,000 to 50,000 are believed to have been killed in the fighting. Since 1993 Russian troops, as well as contingents from Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, have been patrolling the border with Afghanistan and fighting the anti-government guerrillas.
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