Moscow – Moving swiftly to consolidate power, Turkmenistan’s political elite endorsed the Central Asian state’s acting president Tuesday as its favored candidate to succeed the late President Saparmurad Niyazov.
The country’s supreme legislative body, the 2,507-member People’s Council, also revised the constitution to allow acting President Gurbanguly Berdimu kham edov to run in the presidential election, which it set for Feb. 11. Before it was amended, the constitution barred the acting president from being a candidate.
“Today’s decision means that Turkmenistan’s leadership is not ready for radical changes and that we should expect the continuation of a Niyazov-type regime with some possible cosmetic changes,” Farid Tukhbatullin, the exiled chairman of the Vienna-based Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, said in a telephone interview.
The People’s Council nominated five other candidates, but they were viewed as weak figures whose role would be to give some appearance of legitimacy to the balloting. Berdimukhamedov’s nomination was approved unanimously, while the other candidacies were approved with support ranging from 1,779 votes to 2,011 votes, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Some observers said Akmurad Rejepov, head of the presidential security service, was playing the role of kingmaker and would be the power behind the throne.
Berdimukhamedov, 49, was trained as a dentist and had been health minister before becoming deputy prime minister, the position he held when Niyazov died Thursday, leaving no clear successor.
Authorities said Niyazov, 66, died of a heart attack. He was an eccentric leader who ruled the former Soviet state with an iron hand and encouraged an extravagant personality cult.
Mostly desert and slightly larger than California, Turkmenistan is predominantly Muslim, with a population of 5 million and large natural-gas reserves. It is a major exporter of natural gas to Europe, by way of Russia, which purchases the country’s gas and resells it.
Analysts have predicted that Niyazov’s death could trigger competition for influence in Turkmenistan between the United States and Russia.
