Turkmenistan to Name Successor
The People’s Council of Turkmenistan met today to announce candidates to succeed authoritarian leader Saparmurat Niyazov, who died from the cardiac arrest past week. The team of the dead dictator will do utmost to retain power, the opposition said.
Turkmenistan’s supreme legislative body, the People’s Council, convened its extraordinary meeting today, December 26, 2006. The prime issue of the agenda was to decide who would ultimately replace Turkmenbashi the Great.
The decision of legislators was to hold president’s elections February 11, but the names of the candidates are yet unclear. Moreover, before proceeding to the successor operation, the legislators will have to elect a new speaker.
The Security Council of the country met in Ashkhabad yesterday. Even though that get-together of Turkmen leaders chaired by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was not for the public at large, the sources shed light on some information. They said the concern of the meeting was the key offices in the country, including the office of the People’s Council speaker.
Defense Minister Agageldy Mamedgeldyev is the obvious frontrunner when it comes to the speaker’s office, according to the sources. But there is another option. Today’s leaders of Turkmenistan may attempt to change the Constitution and narrow the speaker’s authority to some symbolic value. Should it happen, the People’s Council would go to an old man pleased even with the trifle representing functions.
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All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 26, 2006
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