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Tajikistan
Government Structure
Independent Tajikistan's initial government conformed to the
traditional Soviet formula of parliamentary-ministerial governance
and complete obeisance to the regime in Moscow. The office of
president of the republic was established in 1990, following the
example set by the central government in Moscow. Until the establishment
of the short-lived coalition government in 1992, virtually all
government positions were held by communist party members. After
December 1992, power was in the hands of factions opposed to reform.
Former allies in that camp then contended among themselves for
power.
The 1994 Constitution
In 1994 Tajikistan adopted a new constitution that restored
the office of president, transformed the Soviet-era Supreme Soviet
into the Supreme Assembly (Majlisi Oli), recognized civil liberties
and property rights, and provided for a judiciary that was not
fully independent. Like constitutions of the Soviet era, the document
did not necessarily constrain the actual exercise of power. For
example, the mechanism by which the constitution was formally
adopted was a referendum held in November 1994. Balloting occurred
simultaneously with the vote for president, even though that office
could not legally exist until and unless the constitution was
ratified.
The Executive
The president was first chosen by legislative election in 1990.
In the first direct presidential election, held in 1991, former
communist party chief Rahmon Nabiyev won in a rigged vote. The
office of president was abolished in November 1992, then reestablished
de facto in 1994 in advance of the constitutional referendum that
legally approved it. In the interim, the chairman of the Supreme
Soviet, Imomali Rahmonov, was nominal chief of state. In the presidential
election of November 1994, Rahmonov won a vote that was condemned
by opposition parties and Western observers as fraudulent. Rahmonov's
only opponent was the antireformist Abdumalik Abdullojanov, who
had founded an opposition party after being forced to resign as
Rahmonov's prime minister in 1993 under criticism for the country's
poor economic situation.
The Council of Ministers is responsible for management of government
activities in accordance with laws and decrees of the Supreme
Assembly and decrees of the president. The president appoints
the prime minister and the other council members, with the nominal
approval of the Supreme Assembly. In 1996 the Council of Ministers
included fifteen full ministers, plus six deputy prime ministers,
the chairmen of five state committees, the presidential adviser
on national economic affairs, the secretary of the National Security
Council, and the chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan.
The Legislature
The republic's legislature, the Supreme Assembly, is elected
directly for a term of five years. According to the 1994 constitution,
any citizen at least twenty-five years of age is eligible for
election. The unicameral, 230-seat Supreme Soviet elected in 1990
included 227 communists and three members from other parties.
The constitution approved in November 1994 called for a unicameral,
181-seat parliament to replace the Supreme Soviet. In the first
election under those guidelines, 161 deputies were chosen in February
1995 and nineteen of the remaining twenty in a second round one
month later. (One constituency elected no deputy, and one elected
deputy died shortly after the election.) In the 1995 parliamentary
election, an estimated forty seats were uncontested, and many
candidates reportedly were former Soviet regional and local officials.
The sixty communist deputies who were elected gave Rahmonov solid
support in the legislative branch because the majority of deputies
had no declared party affiliation. Like the 1994 presidential
election, the parliamentary election was not considered free or
fair by international authorities.
The Judiciary
The 1994 constitution prescribes an independent judiciary, including
at the national level the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court
(theoretically, the final arbiter of the constitutionality of
government laws and actions), the Supreme Economic Court, and
the Military Court. The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province has
a regional court, and subordinate courts exist at the regional,
district, and municipal levels. Judges are appointed to five-year
terms, but theoretically they are subordinate only to the constitution
and are beyond interference from elected officials. However, the
president retains the power to dismiss judges, and in practice
Tajikistan still lacked an independent judiciary after the adoption
of the 1994 constitution. In June 1993, the Supreme Court acted
on behalf of the Rahmonov regime in banning all four opposition
parties and all organizations connected with the 1992 coalition
government. The ban was rationalized on the basis of an accusation
of the parties' complicity in attempting a violent overthrow of
the government.
As in the Soviet system, the Office of the Procurator General
has authority for both investigation and adjudication of crimes
within its broad constitutional mandate to ensure compliance with
the laws of the republic. Elected to a five-year term, the procurator
general of Tajikistan is the superior of similar officials in
lower-level jurisdictions throughout the country.
Local Government
Below the republic level, provinces, districts, and cities have
their own elected assemblies. In those jurisdictions, the chief
executive is the chairman of a council of people's deputies, whose
members are elected to five-year terms. The chairman is appointed
by the president of the republic. The Supreme Assembly may dissolve
local councils if they fail to uphold the law. For most of the
late Soviet and early independence periods, Tajikistan had four
provinces: Leninobod in the north, Qurghonteppa and Kulob in the
south, and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in the southeast.
The precise status of that region is unclear because separatists
have declared it an autonomous republic and even the government
does not always call it a province (see fig. 10). Beginning in
1988, Qurghonteppa and Kulob were merged into a single province,
called Khatlon. (The two parts were separated again between 1990
and 1992.) A large region stretching from the west-central border
through Dushanbe to the north-central border is under direct federal
control.
Data as of March 1996
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