In practice, Tajikistan is governed by President Emomali Rahmon who has headed an authoritarian regime with elements of a cult of personality since 1994.

Political opponents are repressed, violations of human rights and freedoms are severe, elections are not free and fair, and corruption and nepotism are rampant.

[1][2][3][4] Various important government positions are occupied by his family members, such as his 35-year-old son Rustam Emomali, who is the chairman of the country's parliament and the mayor of its capital city, Dushanbe.

Frustrated by daily demonstrations in front of the Supreme Soviet and the erosion of the government's authority, the regime appeared to support the Moscow putschists.

A flood of demonstrators blocked roads adjacent to the building of the Supreme Soviet and forced Kahar Mahkamov to resign on 31 August 1991.

During this turmoil Tajikistan declared its independence from Soviet Union, on September 9, 1991 and promptly fell into a civil war from 1992–1997 between old-guard regits, and Islamists loosely organized as the United Tajik Opposition (UTO).

Other combatants and armed bands that flourished in this civil chaos simply reflected the breakdown of central authority rather than loyalty to a political faction.

Prior to the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, the civil war in Afghanistan produced cross-border effects that threatened to destabilize Tajikistan's fragile and hard-won peace.

A constant flow of illegal narcotics continues to transit Tajikistan from Afghanistan on its way to Russian and European markets, leaving widespread violent crime, corruption, increased HIV incidence, and economic distortions in its wake.

[10] In this geographically divided country, the ceremonial position of prime minister traditionally is held by a person from the north to nominally balance President Emomali Rahmon’s southern origin.

This event followed the expiration of the 1997 peace guarantee that the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) would occupy at least 30 percent of top government positions.

[11] In October 2020, Tajikistan's authoritarian President Emomali Rahmon was reelected for a fifth term with nearly 91 percent of the vote, following a tightly controlled and largely ceremonial election.

[15] Yet, according to a source,[15] it was not until 1998 that "the concept of a lawyer-attorney was introduced [in Tajikistan], being defined as a business person providing legal services on the basis of a license issued by the Ministry of Justice."

Each region is divided into several districts (Tajik: ноҳия, nohiya or raion), which in turn are subdivided into jamoats (village-level self-governing units).

The representative branch in provinces, towns, and districts is the assembly (majlis) of people's deputies, who are elected locally for a five-year term.

International observers also found substantial irregularities in the conduct of the 1999 presidential election, in which only one opposition candidate was permitted to register, and the media were censored.

Rahmon easily won re-election in November 2006, gaining 79 percent of the vote against four little-known opponents; international monitors again found the election unfair.

In the ensuing years, the UTO was eclipsed politically by its main component organization, the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP).

In recent years, some Tajiks in eastern Uzbekistan (especially Samarkand and Bukhara and the surrounding areas) have called to join Tajikistan.

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