President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedovs took his place in the new upper house of parliament in the Senate on Tuesday.
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In Turkmenistan, elections of the newly formed Senate took place on Sunday, in which opposition candidates did not participate. Berdimuhamedov and 47 other politicians were elected to the Senate, the newspaper “Neitralny Turkmenistan” reports.
The candidates were elected by local councils, but the newspaper does not reveal which council chose the 63-year-old Berdimuhamedov. The newspaper quotes an official as saying that Berdimuhamedov has received 100% of the vote. The Turkmen authorities do not allow opposition candidates to run in the elections.
It is important for Berdimukhamedov’s family to have full control over the Senate, as the head of the upper house will be second in line to the presidency after the constitutional changes that were passed last year. Although the fact that the president is running for a seat in the Senate has not been previously announced, state media reported that a total of 111 candidates are running for senator seats. The number of candidates was later increased to 112.
Berdimuhamedov’s 39-year-old son Serdar has received a number of promotions this year, which are considered to be steps towards the highest position.
Turkmenistan is currently facing an economic crisis caused by a prolonged fall in natural gas prices and a pandemic, and there are growing rumors of an early transfer of power from father to son. Turkmenistan is one of the few countries that has not officially registered any cases of Covid-19, although foreign media reports that the virus is spreading in that country and people are dying from it.
Serdar Berdimuhamedov was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in February, became a member of the influential Security Council and the Auditor General.
After gaining independence in 1991 in Turkmenistan, its first president, Saparmurad Niyazov, established a strong authoritarian regime with a strong personality cult, and this policy is being pursued by Berdimukhamedov, who came to power after Niyazov’s death in 2006.
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