DUSHANBE, May 25, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- On May 25, former Security Council Secretary Amirqul Azimov, who won a May 15 parliamentary by-election in Dushanbe’s constituency #4 (Sino district), was elected to head the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Defense, Security and Public Order.

We will recall that Amirqul Azimov defeated three other candidates that also ran in the May 15 by-election for a vacant Majlisi Namoyandagon seat representing Dushanbe’s Sino district. 

Two defeated candidates -- Muzaffar Mirzoyev and Safarbek Mannonov -- conceded defeat, while Tolibshoh Saidzoda, editor-in-chief of the Dushanbe independent weekly Millat (Nation), filed a complaint with the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) to demand the revision of the results, which he says were rigged.  According to him, he attached evidence of fraud to his complaint.     

The CCER head Shermuhammad Shohiyon announced on May 24 that the commission has accepted Saidzoda''s complaint fro consideration.  A special group consisting of CCER first deputy chairman Karomatullo Kholiqov, CCER administration chief Muhibullo Dadajonov, and Tajik Journalists’ Union head Akbarali Sattorov, who is also a CCER member, is expected to issue a ruling on Saidzoda''s complaint within a week.

The by-election was held in Dushanbe''s Sino district to fill a seat in the Majlisi Namoyandagon that fell vacant in March when incumbent Shermuhammad Shohiyon was appointed to head the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda.

The Majlisi Namoyandagon today also voted for ratification by Tajikistan of the UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and Tajikistan’s joining the Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment.

Parliamentarians also unanimously endorsed the new edition of the equity market law.  Presenting the bill, Deputy Finance Minister, Jamshed Norinov, noted that current equity law adopted in 1992 had become obsolete.

According to him, more than 1,500 joint-stock companies with a total capital stock of some 4.5 billion somoni now operate in the country.  “Assets of these companies consist mainly of securities,” the deputy minister noted.