DUSHANBE, December 26, Asia-Plus – The People”s Assembly (Khalk Maslakhaty), Turkmenistan’s top legislative body, today scheduled the country”s presidential election for February 11, 2007 following the death of President Saparmurat Niyazov and passed a law on presidential elections.
By law, a presidential candidate should be nominated by the People”s Assembly, must be a natural Turkmen-born citizen not younger than 40 and not older than 70 years and should be a permanent resident of the country for at least 10 years before running for president.
Turkmenistan”s acting president was elected chairman of a session of the People”s Assembly. Sources said Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov”s election as chairman means he is the most likely presidential candidate in the Central Asian republic.
Berdymukhammedov, 49, who was born not far from Niyazov”s native village and was trained as a dentist, became Turkmen minister of health and medicine in 1997 and a deputy prime minister in 2001.
But under the Turkmen Constitution, an acting leader cannot be nominated to the presidency, which delegates to the People”s Assembly the responsibility of amending the law.
The People”s Assembly, which consists of 2,500 deputies, either elected or appointed, settles all issues in the country. Under the Constitution, the assembly must set an election date within two months of the president”s death.
Turkmenistan”s opposition earlier nominated Khudaiberdy Orazov, its leader and a former deputy prime minister, as a presidential candidate, who said the opposition will seek democracy in Turkmenistan by all means and that a revolution is not ruled out.
Orazov, a former deputy prime minister and the leader of the Vatan (Homeland) movement, currently lives in Sweden. He said earlier he has already been in touch with opposition leaders by phone.
