IT WAS more national holiday than election. There were concerts
in public parks and some villagers had electricity all day
instead of the usual hour or two. Voters in one cotton-farming
village visited by your correspondent were rewarded with free
bowls of meat and rice pilau.  On November 6th Imomali Rakhmonov
surprised no one by clinching a new seven-year term as president
of Tajikistan, a poor, mountainous country of 7m people, located
at the strategic junction where Afghanistan, China, India and
Pakistan rub up against each other. The opposition boycotted the
vote, leaving the field to Mr Rakhmonov and some of his
admirers. His 79% share of the vote was modest compared with the
97% he won in 1999.  Western election monitors were critical,
but official Western reaction is likely to be mild. Mr
Rakhmonov, once a Soviet farm boss, is part of an alliance-in-
progress, providing a zone of relative stability and secular
rule north of Afghanistan as well as overflight rights. More
broadly, says a Western diplomat