'God's gift' to Turkmenistan asked to stay on for life
Turkmenistan’s highest legislative body today rejected President Saparmurat Niyazov’s proposal to hold presidential elections in 2009 and asked him to stay in office for life.
The People’s Council – an assembly of more than 2,000 top officials and elders hand-picked by Niyazov to legitimise his most crucial decisions – has not made a final decision, but the request is a strong indication that the autocratic leader could remain in power until he dies.
“You are given to us by God and therefore any talk about presidential elections should be stopped,” said Murad Berdysopyyev, a member of the presidium of the People’s Council. Niyazov had earlier proposed to hold the next presidential elections in 2009.
Turkmenistan’s parliament already declared the 64-year-old Niyazov president for life in 1999. The president, who has created a vast personality cult around himself and tolerates no dissent, rejected the idea two years later.
Niyazov, a former Communist boss, has ruled the former Soviet republic since 1985.
He has resisted moves toward democracy and economic reform and cracked down on dissent in the natural gas and oil rich Central Asian nation. The crackdown has been stepped up since an alleged assassination attempt last year.
