Emomali Rahmon

Emomali Rahmon (born Emomali Sharipovich Rahmonov; 5 October 1952) is a Tajikistani politician who has served as the third president of Tajikistan since 1994, having previously led the country as Chairman of the Supreme Assembly from 1992 to 1994. Since 1998, he has also served as the leader of the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan, which dominates the Parliament of Tajikistan. On 30 September 1999, he was elected vice-president of the United Nations General Assembly for a one-year term.

Born in Danghara to a peasant family, he became a rising apparatchik in Tajikistan as he became the chairman of the collective state farm of his native Danghara. According to his official biography, Rahmon graduated from the Tajik State National University with a specialist's degree in economics in 1982. After working for several years in the Danghara Sovkhoz, Rahmon was appointed chairman of the sovkhoz in 1987 and later as a people’s deputy to the Supreme Soviet for the Tajik SSR.

He became better known in 1992 after the abolition of the presidency amidst the civil war, when he became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (Parliament) of Tajikistan as a compromise candidate between communists and neo-communists on one side and liberal-democratic, nationalist and Islamist forces (the United Tajik Opposition) on the other. Rahmon has won five undemocratic presidential elections. In addition, he extended his powers via constitutional referendums in 1999 and 2003. Following the results of another constitutional referendum in 2016, amendments were adopted that removed presidential term limits.

Rahmon heads an authoritarian government in Tajikistan. Political opponents are repressed, violations of human rights and freedoms are severe, elections are not free and fair, and corruption and nepotism are rampant. Various important government positions are occupied by his family members, such as his 38-year-old son Rustam Emomali, who is the chairman of the country's parliament and the mayor of its capital city, Dushanbe.