Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia is holding the presidential elections under close monitoring of observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the EU and the UN.
According to Tajik law, elections are declared valid if their voter turnout exceeds 50%.
With the total population approaching 7 million, Tajikistan has 3.2 million eligible voters, who are supposed to cast their votes at about 3,200 polling stations in the country and abroad.
Five out of the eight political parties in Tajikistan put forward their candidatures fro the post of president. Incumbent President Emomali Rakhmonov was nominated by the People's Democratic Party, Ismoil Talbakov by the Communist Party, Olimdzhon Boboyev by the Economic Reform Party, Abdukhalim Gaffarov by the Socialist Party, and Amirkul Karakulov by the Agrarian Party.
The opposition parties, which include the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, refused to nominate its candidates claiming that the outcome is predetermined with the long-standing incumbent president most likely to win the elections.
Democratic Party leader Makhmadrouzi Iskandarov, who had planned to run, was last October sentenced to a 23-year prison term on terrorism charges. Many believe his conviction was politically motivated.
