The adoring welcome for Imomali Rakhmon at the carefully choreographed event underscores his tight grip over a state he has ruled for more than two decades and which he looks set to dominate for a further seven years after an election on November 6. No opposition candidates have been allowed to run against the former state farm boss, but he faces daunting economic and social problems in his next term as well as possible security woes when NATO troops quit neighboring Afghanistan in 2014. Will he finally launch a tough attack on regional crime and corruption, which is flourishing in Tajikistan?" Nearly half of the former Soviet republic's eight million people live below the poverty line, World Bank figures show, and remittances from around one million Tajiks working in Russia account for some 40 percent of gross domestic product. As long as Russia gives us jobs, let Rakhmon rule," said a 60-year-old taxi driver who gave his name only as Akhmadjon in the capital Dushanbe.
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