Tajik election body turns down opposition calls for repeat polls.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Tajikistan's official electoral watchdog has turned down an appeal by four Tajik opposition parties to hold repeat elections in the country. The appeal has been lodged after the opposition parties widely criticized the results of the 27 February parliamentary polls as unfair. The following is the text of report by the Tajik Avesta news agency on 18 March:

Dushanbe, 18 March: The Central Electoral Commission of Tajikistan [CEC] has refused opposition parties permission to hold repeat elections to the national parliament, reads a CEC letter received by the Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan [SDPT].

The …