Tajik opposition party leader calls for calm after election loss
DUSHANBE. March 3 (Interfax) - Muhiddin Kabiri, leader of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) of Tajikistan, which lost the country's parliamentary election on March 1, has called on party supporters to stay calm despite a worsening economic situation in the republic.
"Today, more than ever before, our country needs internal stability. Although pressure was exerted on party activists, no one expected such results," Kabiri said at the party's headquarters.
"I disagree with the announced results of the elections because turbulent factors surrounding the region and regional instability threaten to cause a deep socioeconomic crisis in our region," he said.
"First and foremost, the population and the state need stability inside the country," the IRP leader said.
"However, a possible increase in unemployment rates, the daily drop of the exchange rate of the national currency and other factors we are encountering today do not allow us to hope for a better future. Rather, they are pointing to a worse future. What our people and our country need the most today is domestic stability, which would help us find a way out of this crisis," Kabiri said.
According to the Tajik Central Election Commission (CEC), a preliminary tally gives a mere 1.5% of the vote to the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, barring this political force from joining the Tajik parliament for the first time since a peace agreement, which put an end to Tajikistan's five-year civil war, was signed in 1997.
CEC said that only 58,000 Tajik voters cast their ballots for IRP, which has over 40,000 members.
However, there is still a chance that at least one of the party's 19 representatives may win the elections in single-member districts. So far, CEC has announced only the election results based on the party tickets. The voting results in single-member districts will be announced later.
IRP was the only opposition party represented in the Tajik parliament.
