ASHGABAT, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov will face seven token candidates in a presidential election next month seen as a formality for the all-powerful leader of a reclusive Central Asian state holding four percent of global gas reserves.
Turkmenistan is a former Soviet republic with no opposition parties, where compliant state media extol the president daily.
Rights groups rank the desert country, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, among the most oppressive in the world.
Berdymukhamedov, a 55-year-old qualified dentist, became president in 2007 after the death of Turkmenistan’s first post-Soviet leader, Saparmurat Niyazov.
His power has virtually no limits in the country of 5.5 million people. Not only president, Berdymukhamedov is also prime minister, commander of the armed forces and chairman of the only political party – the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan.
His state-authorised nickname is "Arkadag", a word often interpreted as the Turkmen word for "protector". The title ‘Hero of Turkmenistan’ – conferred six times upon his predecessor – was also awarded to Berdymukhamedov in October.
The seven opponents who will appear alongside Berdymukhamedov on the ballot paper are drawn from a variety of government ministries and state-owned enterprises.
The candidate list, published on Wednesday by the Central Election Commission, included the water-resource and energy ministers, representatives of the state gas and oil companies and the director of a textile factory.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has declined to send an observer mission to the Feb. 12 election, saying that its presence would not "add value" given the limited freedoms and lack of political competition.
"There is no private or independent electronic media and publication of the first private newspaper was permitted only recently," the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said after an assessment mission in December.
"The political space has been characterised by an absence of political parties other than the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, an insufficient separation of powers between different branches of government and a limited respect for basic human rights and fundamental freedoms," it said.
International energy companies are pushing for a share of abundant natural gas resources in Turkmenistan, which itself wants to diversify exports from Soviet-era master Russia to China, Iran, other Asian countries and the West.
Turkmenistan ranks joint fourth with Saudi Arabia in terms of natural gas reserves, behind only Russia, Iran and Qatar, data compiled by BP shows.
A law permitting the registration of opposition parties came into force this month, only five days before registration of presidential candidates closed. Any new party would be unlikely to threaten the dominance of Berdymukhamedov’s party.
The ODIHR said it had not received "information that there have been significant changes in the circumstances that have precluded meaningful competition among alternative forces".
Berdymukhamedov won 89 percent of the vote in the February 2007 election that followed the death of Niyazov. He has built closer ties in particular with China, having visited Beijing to flesh out gas deals and win billions of dollars in loans.
