Why Tajikistan’s president will win a fifth term
Emomali Rahmon has arrested or chased away any better candidates
ELECTIONS IN TAJIKISTAN are a staid affair compared with Kyrgyzstan’s. When voters go to the polls to elect a president on October 11th, the ballot paper will offer them a false choice: either tick the box next to the name of Emomali Rahmon, the strongman who has ruled for 28 years, or choose one of four stooges also on the ballot and watch Mr Rahmon storm to victory anyway. The only question is how big a landslide Mr Rahmon will award himself: it would be poor form if he did not better the 84% he won in 2013.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Ballot-ticking exercise”
Asia October 10th 2020
- Defending Taiwan is growing costlier and deadlier
- Angry Kyrgyz rebel against a tainted election—for the third time
- Why Tajikistan’s president will win a fifth term
- Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last countries fighting polio
- The company behind BTS, K-pop’s biggest act, is going public
- For good and ill, India’s prime minister is hard at work
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