Flawed elections

Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Tajik election officials said the ruling party won more than 80 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections this week, a dubious result that international observers refused to endorse. “I was expecting 50 percent fraud,” said Rahmatullo Zoirov, head of the pro-Western Social Democratic Party. “We got 90 percent. It looks like the president wants to achieve absolute power.” The Popular Democratic Party of President Emomali Rakhmonov has dominated the government since a civil war ended in 1997. Neighboring Kyrgyzstan, another former Soviet republic, also had elections this week, but most seats there won’t be allotted until after runoffs, next month.