(Updates with German foreign minister) By Maria Golovnina DUSHANBE, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Tajik leader Imomali Rakhmonov, set to extend his 14-year rule in next week's presidential vote, promised Germany's foreign minister on Friday that he would bring more democracy to his impoverished Central Asian state. Rakhmonov, in power since 1992, looks certain to win re-election in the Nov. 6 poll, boycotted by the opposition, in which he faces only a token contest against four rivals. Ex-Soviet Tajikistan, an impoverished nation prone to instability after a civil war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has never held an election judged free and fair by Western observers. The 54-year-old former Soviet farm boss promised visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier he would adopt more liberal ways in his Muslim nation of seven million. Steinmeier told reporters: "We talked with the president about the process of modernising the country. The president assured me he would press ahead with efforts towards democracy and the rule of law." Opposition parties, that criticise Rakhmonov for being ruthless towards dissent and cracking down on civil rights, have branded Monday's election a Soviet-style sham. Rakhmonov has positioned himself as a man who has brought stability and peace to his nation. "National unity, peace and stability are our main divine values and the most important factors of all our achievements," he said in his annual address in April. Yet Tajikistan's economy is in tatters with two thirds of the population surviving below the poverty line in a country lying on the main drugs trafficking route from Afghanistan. The West is watching the election closely as trouble in Tajikistan, a U.S. ally in its war on terror, could lead to unrest in the wider Central Asian region. ELECTION In the election, Rakhmonov faces four little-known rivals who have never criticised him, an arrangement his opponents see as an attempt to create an atmosphere of a democratic contest. Rakhmonov's rivals -- Amir Karakulov, Abdukhalim Gaffarov, Olimdzhon Boboyev and Ismoil Talbakov -- have chosen to campaign together, and their programmes are almost identical. "What we see today is nothing more than abuse of power, nothing more than grabbing power illegally," Rakhmatillo Zoyirov, head of the opposition Social Democratic party, which is boycotting the poll, told Reuters this week. Despite the opposition's outrage, the election period is likely to pass off peacefully with Rakhmonov's opponents, fragmented and weak, planning no protest rallies. Western observers have found irregularities in the runup. "No signs of competitive elements in the election campaign have been observed," the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's election watchdog said in an Oct. 30 report. Unlike the last vote in 1999 when Tajiks linked Rakhmonov to hopes for peace and better lives, apathy and mistrust of the authorities seemed to dominate the mood on the street. "I am not going to vote. The authorities have made their choice for me," said Husein Alizoda, a 29-year-old resident of Dushanbe. "I don't care who rules the country. All they (the authorities) do is celebrate and build palaces for themselves." (Additional reporting by Markus Krah and Roman Kozhevnikov)
