Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been reelected to his third term in office.
Berdymukhamedov won 97.69 percent of the vote with a turnout of 97.27 percent, the Central Election Commission said. 9 candidates were running for the presidency.
The former health minister took power in 2006 after the death of Turkmenistan’s first president, Saparmurat Niyazov.
In September 2016, Berdymukhamedov approved the amendments to the country’s Constitution, removing the 70-year age limit for presidential candidates and extending the presidential term to seven years from five. A candidate must win over 50% of vote; elections are recognised valid at any turnout.
In the course of his election campaign, the incumbent president was outstandingly creative: for example, he performed his own song Ray of Happiness for builders of a natural gas chemical complex in Akhal region:
Moreover, Berdymukhamedov likes being a DJ and writing books. His works usually become bestsellers in Turkmenistan.
But there is also the other side of the medal: according to the Turkmen human rights organization, citizens are ordered to participate in his events as day players; sometimes they are not allowed to take a bio break for hours.
Turkministan is in the top ten of the most closed countries in the world.
