Tajikistan vote seen as easy win for strongman Emomali Rahmon

The Central Asian nation of Tajikistan is voting on Sunday in a presidential election expected to make incumbent Emomali Rahmon the longest-ruling strongman in the former Soviet state. Polling stations opened at 6am local time (01:00 GMT) and will close at 8pm (15:00 GMT), with results expected the following morning. Few are anticipating any hiccups for Rahmon as he closes in on three decades in power and looks to overtake Kazakhstan’s recently retired Nursultan Nazarbayev in the regional longevity stakes. Rahmon, 68, has run the Persian-speaking nation of 9.5 million people since 1992, a period including a civil war. He has gradually strengthened his grip and a 2016 constitutional reform removed a limit on the number of terms he could serve. He faces four other candidates, all of whom are viewed as token opponents, in his bid for a fresh seven-year term. Voters in the capital Dushanbe interviewed by the AFP news agency overwhelmingly stated their intention to cast their ballot for Rahmon – and struggled to name the other candidates. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">