Career

Usmon was a founding member of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan

Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan

The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan is an Islamist political party in Tajikistan. It is the only legal Islamist party in Central Asia...

 in 1991, and one of its first deputy chairmen.

Usmon was a field commander for the United Tajik Opposition

United Tajik Opposition

The United Tajik Opposition was an alliance of democratic, liberal and Islamist forces that fought in the Tajik Civil War from 1992 to 1997 against administration of President Emomali Rahmonov....

 during the Tajikistan Civil War

Tajikistan Civil War

The Civil War in Tajikistan began in May 1992 when ethnic groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions, which were underrepresented in the ruling elite, rose up against the national government of President Rahmon Nabiyev, in which people from the Leninabad and Kulyab regions dominated...

 of the 1990s. A former Economics Minister, he was the Islamic Renaissance Party's candidate in the 1999 presidential election

Tajikistani presidential election, 1999

Presidential elections were held in Tajikistan on 6 November 1999. They were won by the incumbent, Emomalii Rahmon, who took 97.6% of the vote. The opposition, who had demanded the elections be postponed, and planned to boycott them , described the result as illegal...

. He lost the election to incumbent president, Emomalii Rahmon, gaining only 2.1% of the vote amidst criticism that the election was not free and fair.