DUSHANBE, October 9, Asia-Plus -- Incumbent President Emomali Rahmon will be the first registered candidate for the 2013 presidential election scheduled for November 6.

He is expected to be registered with the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) today afternoon.  Emomali Rahmon has reportedly supported his candidature with signatures from more than 220,000 voters.

Presidential nominees from the Agrarian Party (Tolibbek Bukhoriyev) and the Party of Economic Reforms (Olimjon Boboyev) were also among the first to submit their signatures to the CCER.

Presidential nominee from the Socialist Party, Abduhalim Ghafforov, submitted the list of signatures to support his candidature (218,000) to the CCER yesterday evening.

Presidential nominees from the Communist Party (Ismoil Talbakov) and the Democratic Party (Saidjaffar Ismonov) have also managed to collect the necessary number of signatures to support their candidatures – 217,000 and 210,000 respectively.  They will submit their signatures to the CCER today morning.

Ms. Oynihol Bobonazarova, presidential nominee from the Islamic Revival Party (IRP), is the only presidential nominee who still failed to collect the necessary number of signatures to support her candidature.  By morning of October 8, representatives of Bobonzarova’s campaign staff have reportedly collected 175,000 signatures.  However, they do not stop hoping that they will collect the necessary number of signatures (210,000) by the deadline date (6:00 pm, October 10).