Shadow Movement

摘要

Although Turkmenistan's eccentric and autocratic president-for-life, Sa-parmurat Niyazov, was short in physical stature, he has continued to cast a long shadow since his death two years ago. Only very gradually has his successor, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, begun to make moves to release the country from its self-imposed, Soviet-style isolation.rnA new constitution was adopted in September which increased parliament's powers and raised the number of seats from 65 to 125. This was followed by a parliamentary election on December 14th. Both were hailed as steps towards democracy. But all 288 candidates stressed their support of the president: they were either members of the ruling Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, launched by Niyazov, or were state-approved independents. The opposition is largely in exile. Voter turnout reportedly reached 94%, though little information was made available about the candidates or what they stood for.