TURKMENISTAN/FIILE: Turkmens vote for a new president in its first contested election

Turkmenistan is voting for a new president in its first contested election, but is one virtually certain to be won by an aide to the country's former authoritarian leader who died in December. Turkmenistan's presidential vote on Sunday (February 11) was not free or fair but was a step in the right direction, the head of a group of parliamentarians from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said. The gas-rich Central Asian nation voted for a new leader following the death in December of Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled the country with an iron fist for two decades. Portugese member of parliament Joao Soares, in Ashgabat as one of a group of five members of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, said that they could hardly have been called elections and were absolutely not free and fair. Soares stressed his role was not one of a formal election monitor and said that while the election did not correspond to the standards of the OSCE, they recognised that for a country which was under strong leadership for so long, the fact that they were at least trying to do something that resembled a free election was a step forward. He added that he had been prevented from watching ballots being counted in the vote, which is widely expected to hand power to acting leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Aside from the OSCE PA team, the human rights arm of the 56-member OSCE -- which conducts election monitoring -- sent nine experts to watch the elections, although it said it would not issue a formal report on the conduct of the vote. Six candidates are officially vying to replace President Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled the former Soviet republic for two decades with an iron fist while building golden statues of himself and stamping his image on every part of daily life. The six all come from Niyazov's Democratic Party -- the only legal political grouping. All pledged to continue in his steps, but the one seen as bound to win was acting leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who served for 10 years in Niyazov's cabinet. Human rights groups have condemned the poll, prompted by Niyazov's death from a heart attack, as a sham that would consolidate "a new dictatorship" in the desert nation. But others have said the mere fact that more than one person was on ballot papers and apparent popular interest was progress. The United States, Europe and China are watching closely, keen to see Turkmenistan's gas flow along new routes beside the Soviet-era pipeline that allows Russia to benefit from below market prices. An inauguration has been planned for Wednesday (February 14), even though technically there could be a second round. Many people appeared unsure of what to do and dropped unfolded ballot papers into the transparent boxes, invariably marked in favour of Berdymukhamedov, 49. Berdymukhamedov has sprung from relative obscurity to become the successor-in-waiting thanks to the backing of powerful figures in the armed forces and the large ranks of the internal security services, diplomats and the exiled opposition say. Many of Niyazov's former ministers ended up in prison or exile, where some of them have formed opposition movements banned from participating in Sunday's vote. Human rights groups say the country has a large number of political prisoners. In his campaign, Berdymukhamedov pledged to reverse some of the more unpopular policies of the "Great Leader", despite his own role in implementing them. He wants to extend schooling, improve healthcare and let Turkmens access the Internet. Niyazov kept the country closed off from the outside world, cut the number of years children went to school to nine, fired thousands of nurses and other medical staff and closed provincial hospitals.

ITN Source | February 11, 2007

Tags:. .movements. .extend. .decades. .apparent. .participating