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Turkmenistan votes for successor to late dictator
ASHGABAT - The people of Turkmenistan voted Sunday to elect a successor to their late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, with the gas-rich Central Asian republic’s interim leader seen as guaranteed of victory. It was Turkmenistan’s first multi-candidate presidential poll, but acting president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov appeared certain to win.
Oh, I am so surprised.
His five nominal rivals were little-known figures, all members of the ex-Soviet republic’s sole political party, while any real potential opponents live in foreign exile.
Not quite safe to return home, is it?
The election followed the sudden death in December of Niyazov, who dominated Turkmenistan for 21 years, overseeing a powerful personality cult, banishing political opponents, and tightly controlling the media. Many Turkmens hope that Berdymukhammedov, 49, will draw a line under this era and open the mostly Muslim, desert nation of five million people to the outside world.

A longtime Niyazov loyalist, Berdymukhammedov has recently called for reforms, including an eventual end to the one-party system and allowing widespread Internet access. He has also vowed to provide greater economic opportunity. That message has gone down well with ordinary Turkmens.

A turnout of 85 percent was recorded with four hours of voting to go, easily passing the 50-percent minimum needed to make the poll valid, the Central Electoral Commission said.

This was the country’s first election in which a team from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was invited, although not as official observers. The OSCE is a pan-European human rights body.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-02-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=180132