ASHGABAT: Voting was underway in Turkmenistan on Sunday in a parliamentary election which could indicate a path towards hereditary succession in the authoritarian, gas-rich former Soviet state.A total of 284 candidates are competing for 125 seats in parliament, but only one stands out from the crowd — Serdar Berdymukhamedov, son of all-powerful President Gurbanguly Berdy­mukhamedov.

Serdar Berdymukhamedov, 36, is defending a seat in the Akhal region just outside the capital Ashgabat and is almost certain to win by a big margin. His opponent is 53-year-old school official Olgudzheren Gurdova.

There is no recognised institution of political opposition in tightly-controlled Turkme­nistan, which has never had an election deemed free or fair by Western vote monitors.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov won a third term effectively unopposed in a presidential vote in February last year with a crushing landslide of more than 97 per cent.

According to the constitution, which was amended in 2016 to strip away the upper age limit for presidential candidates and extend terms from five to seven years, the president heads both the state and the government.

In the event the president is unable to fulfil duties, they fall on the speaker of the parliament.

Serdar Berdymukhamedov’s elevation to the legislature in a by-election just months before his father’s 2017 victory raised eyebrows in Turkmenistan where little is known about the president’s relatives.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2018