Incumbent Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has won the Turkmenistan presidential election held on February 12 with 97.69% of the vote, RIA Novosti reported on February 13.
Human Rights Watch notes that “there are no free elections in Turkmenistan, nor is there a free media, and citizens cannot freely protest in the street. Turkmenistan is one the world’s few countries that regularly bars thousands of its citizens from traveling abroad”. As such, the Turkmen dictator’s crushing victory was a certainty.
The voter turnout amounted to 97.27%, the report said.
Berdimuhamedov has served as president of the oppressive Central Asian republic since 2006, when he replaced Saparmurat Niyazov, the country's first post-Soviet president, who had a cult-like status and declared himself the "Head of All Turkmen".
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