Rakhmonov re-elected as Tajik President

DUSHANBE—Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov has been declared winner of a presidential election in the strategic Central Asian state, a result likely to be welcomed by foreign powers despite doubts about its fairness.
The election commission said Rakhmonov, 54, had won Monday’s poll with just over 79 percent of the vote, giving him an outright win, albeit short of the thumping 97 percent he won in 1999.
His clinching of a new seven-year term was widely expected among Western governments, which have courted the Tajik leader amid a renewed struggle for influence in the region since the Soviet Union’s 1991 collapse.
None of the main opposition parties participated and Western election observers gave a critical assessment. “While this election marks some improvement on 1999, the framework was not adequate for genuine democratic elections,” said Onno Van der Wind, head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s observation mission.—Agencies