You're reading: Turkmenistan launches second political party

ASHGABAT - Turkmenistan launched its second political party on Tuesday, a token nod to democracy unlikely to pose any challenge to the absolute rule of President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in the reclusive, gas-rich Central Asian state.

The 300-member Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs
held its inaugural meeting two years after the president ordered
the creation of a multi-party system in the ex-Soviet republic.

State media reported that Orazmammed Mammedov, a member of
the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs – which itself was
signed into being by the president last year – was elected
chairman of the new party.

Known as Arkadag, or The Patron, Berdymukhamedov is
president, prime minister, commander of the armed forces and
leader of the Democratic Party which, until now, was the only
legally registered political force in Turkmenistan.

Analysts are sceptical that the 54-year-old qualified
dentist plans to relax his tight grip on the desert nation of
5.5 million people bordering Iran and Afghanistan, which BP says
holds the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves.

Turkmen opposition activists live in exile and rights groups
regularly rank the country among the world’s most repressive.
Human Rights Watch said in its latest annual report that media
and religious freedoms were subject to “draconian restrictions.”

Keen to win investment for the country’s gas ambitions,
Berdymukhamedov has taken steps to bring Turkmenistan out of the
isolation that accompanied the eccentric rule of predecessor
Saparmurat Niyazov, who banned opera and renamed the months of
the year.

In his first public comments after winning re-election in
February, Berdymukhamedov said he aimed to build a market
economy and multi-party political system. He has also approved
the creation of a third, agrarian party.

Berdymukhamedov extended his term by five years by winning
97 percent of votes in the Feb. 12 election, which was shunned
by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
because of its lack of competition.

Berdymukhamedov set himself up against seven token
challengers drawn from government ministries and state
enterprises, several of whom openly praised the president’s
achievements prior to the vote.