DUSHANBE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2020) Tajikistan's presidential election has drawn over 70 percent of the electorate by 03:00 p.m. local time (10:00 GMT) on Sunday, and it means that the election is declared valid, Bakhtiyor Khudoerzoda, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), told reporters.
The elections are considered valid in Tajikistan if the turnout tops 50 percent.
"The turnout at 03:00 p.m. is 70.71 percent, 3,495,215 people voted," Khudoerzoda said.
Longtime President Emomali Rahmon is a heavy favorite to win a fifth term to extend his 28-year rule of the Central Asian republic.
Russian lawmaker Alexey Chepa, who is part of a State Duma delegation to monitor the election, told Sputnik that the voting is taking place in an orderly fashion and that Tajikistan will not repeat the fate of neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which plunged into chaos after a disputed general election last week.
"The election is going very calmly. I am in Dushanbe, universities vote very actively, young people actively vote. There are no violations at all ... I am absolutely sure that there will not be anything similar to the situation that erupted after the elections in Kyrgyzstan," Chepa said.
The election is being monitored by delegations from post-Soviet organizations, namely the Commonwealth of Independent States, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
In power since 1992, which already makes him the longest-serving ruler in the post-Soviet world, Rahmon intends to remain in office for another seven-year term.