Turkmenistan's acting president said yesterday that a date for elections to replace the ex-Soviet republic's late long-ruling dictator will be set on Tuesday.
Acting President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov promised the polls would be democratic. However, the presidential candidates will be nominated, and there was no indication that the one-party state intends to introduce full democracy after long-entrenched authoritarian rule.
President Saparmurat Niyazov, 66, died from heart failure on Thursday after 21 years at the helm of the gas-rich nation.
His sudden death prompted predictions yesterday of a power struggle inside the ex-Soviet republic and a no less fierce contest among major powers coveting the nation's natural gas deposits.
Niyazov held absolute power and created an elaborate cult around himself after the nation of 5 million became independent with the 1991 Soviet collapse.
The date of the next presidential polls will be set by the People's Council, the country's highest legislative body, at a session scheduled for Tuesday, Berdymukhamedov said. His decree also said that on Tuesday the People's Council will consider "`candidates nominated for the president's post."
Presidential elections were last held in 1992, and Niyazov won with 95.5 percent of the vote.
Yesterday's newspapers, which are all state-controlled, were fully devoted to Niyazov's death, carrying front-page photographs of him and reaction and condolences from citizens and companies.
"Our hearts are overfilled with sorrow," "Feeling the pain of a loss," "An irreplaceable loss," said headlines in the official Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper.
State-run TV broadcasted funeral music, as it had all day on Thursday following the announcement that Niyazov had died of a heart attack. New Year's decorations were gone from the streets and black ribbons attached to flags.
All restaurants, cafes and liquor shops were closed throughout the country.
Weddings were ordered to be postponed until the end of the national mourning period on Dec. 30.
But beneath the outward calm, there is a gaping power vacuum waiting to be filled, left by the death of a man who declared himself president for life and ruled like an absolutist king in a country that is of growing geopolitical interest to major powers such as China, Russia and the US.
Turkmenistan not only has massive gas reserves of its own, but is positioned as a key link in the energy corridor the US wants to build from Central Asia, across the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus and to Western markets.
"His death has launched a vicious fight for power in Turkmenistan and, what is more important, a new stage of struggles between Russia, China, the European Union and other interested parties for Turkmen gas," the respected Kommersant daily wrote in Moscow.
The EU on Thursday called for the restoration of democracy in Turkmenistan in a statement that offered no condolences.
"We expect the succession process to be carried out according to the Constitution and the rule of law," the statement read.
US President George W. Bush expressed his condolences on Thursday, saying: "We look forward to continuing to expand our relations with Turkmenistan, to a bright future for that country and to a government that provides justice and opportunity for its people."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese