Turkmenistan holds first multi-party parliamentary poll

A Turkmenistan woman casts her ballot at polling station during parliamentary elections in Ashgabat on Sunday.

Turkmenistan on Sunday held a parliamentary election that for the first time featured more than one party.

Experts said the move is part of President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov’s attempts to show that his Central Asian country is making progress towards democratic development although no real opponents of his rule took part in the poll.

The parties standing were the Democratic Party, formerly led by Berdymukhamedov, and the pro-business party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which was founded last year.

The electoral commission in the capital, Ashgabat, said that by noon, almost 90 per cent of voters had cast their ballots. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe sent observers to monitor the polls.

Mr. Berdymukhamedov himself gained a second five-year term as president last year with official figures showing he garnered 97 per cent of the vote.

Human rights groups have accused his government of torture, arbitrary justice, imposing travel bans, and internet and media censorship.

Mr. Berdymukhamedov became president in 2007 on the death of his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, who had been in power since Soviet times.

The former Soviet republic, which is rich in natural gas reserves, has been the subject of competing interests from Western countries, Russia and China.