ASHGABAT: Turkmenistan reported near unanimous turnout of 91.3 percent yesterday in the reclusive Central Asian state’s first multiparty elections, wh.
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Power consolidation and the institutional transformations of Turkmenistan’s assembly bodies.
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May 05, 2021
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On March 28, 2021, for the first time in its independent history, Turkmenistan held elections for the 56-member upper chamber of the country’s parliament – the Halk Maslahaty (the People’s Council). The indirect elections saw 48 members elected by the country’s regional councils, plus Ashgabat city. The remaining eight members were selected directly by President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov.
The elections would have garnered little attention if not for one fact: Berdymuhamedov was first declared an elected member of the chamber and roughly two weeks later, during the chamber’s first session, he was elected as the council’s chairman. The act blatantly violates articles 73 and 87 of the Turkmen Constitution, which prohibit the sitting president from being a member of either chamber of the parliament and restrict which bodies members of parliament c