Serdar Berdymoukhamedov, son of the authoritarian and eccentric president of Turkmenistan, won the presidential election organized on March 12, according to the results announced on Tuesday March 15. He succeeds his father at the head of this former Soviet republic of Central Asia, considered one of the most authoritarian countries on the planet.
Aged 40, he won the election with 73% of the vote against eight other candidates without notoriety, according to the electoral commission of Turkmenistan. His victory was beyond doubt in this desert country rich in hydrocarbons where his father, Gurbangouli Berdimoukhamedov, held all the levers of power and organized the rise of his son with successive promotions. The score remains far from the 97% and 98% collected by his father during the two previous elections.
Keep the country as closed as possible
The outgoing president, who has set up a cult of his personality in this country of 6 million inhabitants, succeeded in 2006 to Saparmurat Niazov who was, before his death, an equally authoritarian leader. Gourbangouli Berdimoukhamedov, 64, announced in February that he had taken the ” difficult decision “ to leave power because of his age and had declared that he wanted to leave the country to “young leaders”. A few days later, his son unsurprisingly became his designated successor.
Serdar Berdimoukhamedov, before being elected to the presidency, was already deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, and had replaced his father in the symbolic post of president of the national association of akhal-teké horses, a national symbol. Since April 2021, it also has the status of“honourable breeder” of alabais, a revered dog breed in Turkmenistan.
Serdar Berdimoukhamedov should continue the work of his father, who always tried to keep the country as closed as possible. Turkmenistan’s economy depends almost entirely on the sale of natural gas, particularly to China.
However, it suffered greatly from the slowdown in global activity due to the coronavirus pandemic. The country, already reclusive, has completely cut itself off from the outside world with the epidemic, while claiming, against all evidence, to have been spared by the Covid-19.