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Turkmen Legislators Nominate Successor
The People’s Council of Turkmenistan - Halk Maslakhaty – authorized Tuesday six candidates to run for president in the elections slated for February 11. Of all candidates, the legislators unanimously voted only for acting president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, making clear that exactly Berdymukhammedov would succeed the late Turkmenbashi the Great Saparmurat Niyazov.
Once dentist of Saparmurat Niyazov and today’s acting president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was elected to chair the yesterday’s sitting of 2507 members of Halk Maslakhaty. Five days that passed since the death of Niyazov quite sufficed to make the people of that Central Asian state still mourning for the late leader get accustomed to the new chief.
So, the first thing that the legislators did yesterday was to amend the Constitution, which had spelled out that the parliament’s speaker rather than the prime minister (Berdymukhammedov) was to become an acting president. Then, the delegates set February 11 as the day of president’s elections and proceeded to nominating the candidates. Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was duly put forward, of course.
The initial intention of the People’s Council was to skip the elections and approve Berdymukhammedov as a new president straight away, but Berdymukhammedov was adamant. He specified that Turkmenbashi the Great had revived ancient democratic traditions of Turkmenistan and the elections with alternative candidates involved would be in line with them.
Nowadays hardly anyone in Turkmenistan harbors any doubts that Berdymukhammedov will become a worthy successor of Niyazov. Exactly Berdymukhammedov could have been the mastermind of the boldest ideas of the late president, including the ban on the gold teeth for the Turkmen (which had been the adored tradition there) to closing all village hospitals. Niyazov reasoned it made no sense to sustain doctors all over the country. If a villager gets ill, he should go to Ashgabat for treatment. In case of need, the soldiers can render the first aid to locals, Turkmenbashi said. Of interest is that Berdymukhammedov was the Health Minister in time of this deed of Niyazov.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 27, 2006
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