The ex-Soviet Central Asian state of Turkmenistan on Sunday held its first multi-party legislative elections, but with no Opposition to trouble the dominance of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
Turkmens cast ballots in the gas-rich country until polls closed at 1930 IST to choose 125 candidates for the seats in the Majlis, or parliament, for the next five years.
Challenging the ruling Democratic Party of Turkmenistan is the Party of Industrialists and Businessmen of Turkmenistan, founded in August 2012 but only nominally oppositional and seen as pro-Berdymukhamedov.
The election was the first in the country attended by a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which visited polling stations on Sunday.
However both the Assembly and the human rights office of the European security body said they would not issue a report before next February.
Berdymukhamedov, known in the secluded country as “Arkadag” or “Protector”, said the polls would “demonstrate the extent of developing democracy and civil society in our country.”