Early presidential elections were held in

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

on 12 March 2022. The elections were called after incumbent

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow (born 29 June 1957) is a Turkmen politician and former dentist who is currently the chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan. He previously served as the second president of Turkmenistan from ...

announced his intention to resign, having already announced on January 25, 2020, that he would not seek re-election to a fourth term, leaving the office open for the first time since

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, when Berdimuhamedow was first elected, following the death of president-for-life

Saparmurat Niyazov Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov (19 February 1940 – 21 December 2006) was a Turkmenistani politician who led Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006. He was the Secretary (title), first secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenist ...

on 21 December 2006. The Democratic Party, which has ruled the country since independence after the dissolution of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, chose Berdimuhamedow's son

Serdar Serdar may refer to * Serdar (given name) * Serdar (surname) Serdar is a surname of the following notable people: * Can Serdar (born 1996), German-Turkish football midfielder * Emerîkê Serdar (1935–2018), Kurdish-Yezidi writer from Armenia * I ...

as its candidate. Serdar Berdimuhamedow was subsequently elected with 73% of the vote. However, the elections were seen by many international observers as neither free nor fair.

Background

No prior elections in Turkmenistan have been free and fair and the 2022 elections took place in an authoritarian context. The country has been described as a

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

under the rule of

and

. The

Democratic Party of Turkmenistan The Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (, , TDP) is a political party in Turkmenistan founded in 1991. It has been the ruling party of the country since its foundation. The party was led by former Soviet provincial party leader Saparmurat Niyaz ...

is seen as the only legitimate force, with other parties having been founded after 2012 in order to give the appearance of a multi-party system. All legal parties currently support the government. In 2016, the constitution was amended to extend the term of presidents from five to seven years and to eliminate the age-limit of 70. This was seen as an effort to allow the incumbent Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow to stay in office. Despite this, he signaled his resignation just five years into his seven-year term. On 12 February 2022, the Mejlis passed a resolution scheduling the election for 12 March in accordance with article 81 of the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. The son of the former president,

Serdar Berdimuhamedow Serdar Gurbangulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow (born 22 September 1981) is a Turkmenistani politician who is currently serving as the third and current president of Turkmenistan since 2022. Berdimuhamedow had previously served in several other position ...

, was widely seen as the successor to his father.

Electoral system

The

President of Turkmenistan The president of Turkmenistan (), officially the president and chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, is the head of state and head of government of Turkmenistan. The president is also the supreme commander in chief of the Armed ...

is elected using the

two-round system The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

for a seven-year term. The minimum age for a candidate is 40.

Candidates

Campaign

The campaign stage began on 21 February. In accordance with Article 51 of the Electoral Code of Turkmenistan, candidates from the moment of their registration have equal rights to speak at pre-election meetings, campaign meetings, and in the media. Bodies of state power and local self-government, officials of institutions, organizations and enterprises are obligated to assist candidates in obtaining the necessary information related to elections. According to Article 52 of the Electoral Code of Turkmenistan, each candidate for the President of Turkmenistan can have up to three proxies in each etrap and each city with the rights of an etrap. Candidate meetings throughout the territory of Turkmenistan are held with broad participation of the public, representatives of labor collectives of enterprises and organizations, honorary elders and youth.

Conduct

On 28 February 2022, an observer mission from the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...

(CIS) arrived in Turkmenistan. Early voting began on 2 March, where a total of 41 polling stations were opened in 30 countries.

Results

The Central Election Committee reported on 15 March that Serdar Berdimuhamedow won the election with 72.97% of the vote. University official Hydyr Nunnaýew came in second place with 11.09%. Unlike in prior elections, the preliminary results were not available on the day after the election. Berdimuhamedow received the lowest number of votes out of any winning candidate in all Turkmen presidential elections. Turnout was reported at 97% according to the Central Election Committee.

Reactions

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party ( zh, s=中国共产党中央委员会总书记, p=Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì Zǒngshūjì) is the leader of the Chinese Communist Part ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...

sent a message of congratulations to Serdar Berdimuhamedow after the results were announced.

Russian President The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

reportedly extended his congratulations in a phone call with both Gurbanguly and Serdar Berdimuhamedow. The

Organization of Turkic States The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly called the Turkic Council or the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, is an intergovernmental organization comprising all but one of the internationally recognized Turkic languages, Tur ...

congratulated him via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

References

{{Turkmenistani elections

Presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

Presidential elections in Turkmenistan

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...