ABSTRACT
Free and fair elections conducted under a multiparty system are seen as the essential marker of international peacebuilding’s success. ‘Indeed’, Jeong notes, in a major survey of the field, ‘conducting elections needed to establish a legitimate government has been the overriding objective under which all other international activities are generally subsumed’ (2005: 103, emphasis added). The International Community has invested considerable time and resources to improving electoral law, increasing civic engagement and the monitoring of national elections in Tajikistan. Such investments reflect policy priorities set by donor-funded research that in turn adopts the generic priorities of peacebuilding discourse. For example, the 2003 ‘peacebuilding framework’ for Tajikistan identified people’s opportunities to ‘non-violently express their dissatisfaction with government, ruling elite policies and programmes through the democratic process’ as one of five priorities. Its recommendations included support for opposition parties and ‘a democratic multiparty system’, the ‘creation of open spaces for dialogue’, assistance for ‘holding free and fair elections’ and, in particular, ‘technical assistance and training to improve election procedures’ (Abdullaev and Freizer, 2003: 54-55). However, whilst the Tajikistani government has consciously incorporated the language of democracy into its legal framework and public pronouncements, it is largely unconstrained by democratic institutions or norms. Multiparty elections in Tajikistan serve purposes other than those of democratisation.
