DUSHANBE, Sept 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tajikistan’s ruling party nominated veteran leader Emomali Rakhmon for president as he seeks to extend his reign of nearly three decades, state media said.
Rakhmon is widely expected to win a new seven-year term on Oct 11, securing the opportunity to become the longest-ruling post-Soviet leader.
He has run the Central Asian country since 1992 and has held the post of president since 1994.
His nomination at the convention of the People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan that dominates parliament was reported by the state news agency Khovar.
Independent news agency Asia Plus reported that Rakhmon was not present at the party conference.
Rakhmon’s nomination appeared to dispel any notion that the strongman would seek to engineer a hereditary succession at the October polls.
Speculation had been rife in recent years that Rakhmon, 67, would pass the reins on to a member of his family, with his eldest son and mayor of the capital Dushanbe Rustam Emomali the most likely candidate.
Rustam, 32, was this year unanimously elected to the post of senate chairman in a move that makes him second in line to the presidency according to the constitution.
The nomination came after the republic’s major opposition party said it would not be nominating a candidate for the vote that Rakhmon is expected to win.
Four other parties have put forward candidates for the October polls but none of them are expected to mount a challenge to Rakhmon’s rule.
Nursultan Nazarbayev, the long-time ruler of another Central Asian country, Kazakhstan, called time on his presidency in March last year and was succeeded by then senate leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Two other Central Asian rulers who were in charge at the time of independence in 1991, Turkmenistan’s Saparmurat Niyazov and Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov, died while still in power. — NNN-AGENCIES
