Tajik Parliament’s Speaker Bows to Protesters, Quits : Central Asia: A long rally against Communist-dominated Parliament in former Soviet republic finally pays off.

A monthlong rally in the main square of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, formerly a Soviet republic, finally paid off Wednesday when the Speaker of the Communist-dominated Parliament bowed to demonstrators’ demands and resigned.

Opponents of the hard-line Parliament were so determined to get legislators’ attention that they held 16 lawmakers and two political assistants hostage overnight. They were released unharmed on Wednesday morning when Safarali Kendzhayev, the Parliament’s Speaker, quit, saying he saw no other path for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

“This pleases the crowd,” a leader of the Hagzhot Women’s Society said in a telephone interview from Dushanbe. “But the people will not leave the square until new elections for the Parliament are scheduled.”

Late in the evening, officials agreed to “consider and satisfy” the demonstrators’ demands, and the Parliament approved the government’s decision, reported NEGA, the news service of the prestigious Moscow-based Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The government’s concessions include setting a date for multi-party elections and giving the opposition a voice in drafting the constitution.

The opposition agreed to leave the square by Friday if the government keeps its promises.

Tens of thousands of opponents of Tajikistan’s Soviet-style legislature have conducted a four-week vigil outside the Parliament building of this Central Asian nation. They want a new, freely elected Parliament reflecting the political diversity in the country, which has strong Islamic and democratic opposition parties. The current Communist-dominated Parliament was elected in February, 1990.

“The people on the square are not members of radical political parties but just normal people,” said the leader of the women’s society, which represents many political parties. “The people are afraid of totalitarianism.”

Marathon street protests are becoming something of a Tajikistan political tradition. Tajiks took to the streets by the tens of thousands after a Communist regime seized power last September. Protesters occupied the square for days and nights, shouting “Resign!” until Rahmon Nabiyev, who led the coup, gave up the post of president pending national elections.