Turkmens were yesterday to vote in a tightly controlled leadership election that is all but certain to yield ex-Soviet Central Asia’s first father-son succession.
Nine candidates are on the ballot in the republic of 6 million people, but Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who tolerates no opposition and has dominated public life since the country’s founding president died in 2006, is not among them.
Berdymukhamedov signaled his decision to step aside last month and allow “young leaders” to govern.
Photo: Reuters
The announcement has seen the role of victor-in-waiting to fall to his son, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, 40, who has rapidly risen to the top of government.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, 64, benefits from a glitzy leadership cult that includes a golden statue of him on horseback and elicits comparisons to North Korea — a country that has already witnessed two hereditary successions.
Turkmen state television’s fawning celebrations of his hobbies — horse riding, songwriting and rally car racing, to name a few — have made the so-called “protector” a phenomenon on foreign social media, all of which are blocked.
The leader, who claims that his country has not had a single case of COVID-19, last month said that he wishes to remain in politics in his role as chairman of the Turkmen parliament’s upper chamber.
Much less is known about Serdar Berdymukhamedov, whose government promotions received little public attention until he entered parliament in 2016.
Since then he has been a deputy foreign minister, the head of a province and an industry and construction minister.
Last year, he won a triple promotion, taking up roles as deputy cabinet chair, auditor general and member of the security council.
Civil servant Selbi Nepesova, 39, said that Serdar Berdymukhamedov’s official biography proves he is “the most experienced” of the candidates, despite being younger than his rivals, most of whom are low-ranking government employees.
“People who worked with him know more about him than us simple folk. He will have his father close by,” the Ashgabat resident said.
Turkmenistan’s economy is almost wholly dependent on sales of natural gas, making it vulnerable to external shocks that have crippled the purchasing power of citizens, who have no access to hard currency.
China has come to dominate this trade, with one-time top customer Russia’s demand for the fuel under doubt amid crippling sanctions connected to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
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