TURKMENISTAN:Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was sworn in as president of Turkmenistan yesterday immediately after being named the landslide winner of last weekend's election.
The poll had been held to find a replacement for Saparmurat Niyazov, the despot who died on December 21st after ruling the gas-rich central Asian republic for more than 20 years.
The central election commission said Mr Berdymukhamedov, the interim president, took 89.3 per cent of the vote on Sunday in the country's first contested presidential election.
At an inauguration in the capital, Ashgabat, attended by officials from 30 countries, Mr Berdymukhamedov said he would look to the Turkmen people for support, raising hopes that the new regime might be open to a measure of political dialogue. He promised that Turkmenistan would honour its energy export contracts, a concern for foreign powers interested in seeing a stable flow of natural gas shipments. "Turkmenistan will fulfil all its international obligations, including those involving energy supplies," he said.
Most of Turkmenistan's gas exports flow to Russia, Europe's most important source of supply. China is competing for Turkmen gas.
Opposition leaders living in exile condemned the elections as invalid on the grounds that they had been refused entry to Turkmenistan to stand and that political prisoners remained in jail.
"The election went exactly as they planned. Excuse the expression, but it was pure insolence," said Nurmuhamed Khanamov, leader of the Republican party.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said the fact that the election had happened represented "180-degree change" in Turkmenistan. Niyazov was named president for life in 2002.
European officials at the inauguration said it was important to engage Turkmenistan at a time when there was a chance of reform. But there were few illusions about the country emerging from dictatorship.
Hedi Wegener, a German legislator, said: "All power will be concentrated in the new president's hands." Those present were given copies of the Rukhnama (Book of the Soul), a spiritual treatise by Niyazov, implying that the government would be loyal to the late dictator.
Mr Berdymukhamedov promised that Turkmens would continue to receive free gas, electricity, bread and salt, suggesting that market reforms would not be on the agenda.