Rakhmon, Emomali, 1952–, Tajik political leader. His surname was Rahkmonov until 2007, when he called for Tajiks to revive their traditions and derussify their names. Rakhmon was the head of a state cotton farm when he was elected to the Supreme Council of the Tajik SSR in 1990; the following year Tajikistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. In 1992 President Rakhmon Nabiyev was ousted amid civil and ethnic strife, and when government was reestablished the parliament elected Rakhmon its chairman (and head of state). He was elected president in 1994, and reelected in 1999, 2006, 2013, and 2020, but those elections generally have been criticized as neither free nor fair by international observers. Throughout the 1990s, his government's authority was weak outside the capital. In 2015 the parliament gave him the title “Leader of the Nation” and awarded him immunity from prosecution; the following year he was exempted from presidential term limits.
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