The Hindu : Tajiks approve longer tenure for President

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003

International

International

Tajiks approve longer tenure for President

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW JUNE 23 . The President of Tajikistan, Imomali Rakhmonov, has secured in a referendum the right to stay in power till 2020 in a move that is feared to provoke instability in this poorest former Soviet republic.

Constitutional amendments, overwhelmingly approved in a referendum on Sunday, allow two, instead of one, Presidential terms for one leader.

Mr. Rakhmonov's current term, ending in 2006, would not count, meaning that he may run again twice.

Over 93 per cent of voters supported 56 amendments to the country's constitution, which also eliminated a constitutional right to free health care and free education.

The voters could either approve or reject the changes en masse.

It is the fourth time Mr. Rakhmonov, who at 50 is the youngest President in ex-Soviet Central Asia, has initiated constitutional changes since coming to power during bloody civil strife in Tajikistan in the early 1990s.

Following his election as Chairman of Parliament in 1992, lawmakers abrogated presidency.

Two years later, presidency was restored in a referendum, paving the way to Mr. Rakhmonov's election to the post.

After the presidential term was extended from five to seven years in 1999, Mr. Rakhmonov was re-elected President, winning 97 per cent of the vote. Extending stay in power through referendum is a typical know-how of Central Asian leaders.

Uzbekistan last year amended the Constitution allowing the President, Islam Karimov, to run for two seven-year terms after his current five-year term expires in 2005.

In Turkmenistan, people in 1999 voted to make their leader, Saparmurad Niyazov, President for life.

Opposition parties have strongly opposed Sunday's referendum in Tajikistan and plan to set up a united front to field a single candidate in the next presidential election in three year's time.

With the wounds of the civil war that ended in 1997 still bleeding, opposition forces may also resume armed struggle against the regime of Mr. Rakhmonov.

Two months ago, former field commanders threatened the take up arms again if Mr. Rakhmonov went ahead with the referendum.

However, the leader of Tajikistan clearly counts on the support of Russia, which has 25,000 troops deployed in the country, and the United States, which signed a defence pact with Tajikistan earlier this year.

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