Turkmenistan: Presidential elections were held with gross violations

Serdar Berdymukhamedov, the son of the former President, has become the new President of Turkmenistan. According to official figures, he got 72.97% of the votes. However, the elections were held with widespread violations.

ACCA sources watched what was happening at the polling stations. According to official information, 2577 polling stations were opened. ACCA sources, close to the CEC, reported that only 1340 polling stations had been opened in the country, and no polling stations were created at all in remote villages. According to official data, the CEC registered 3,435,950 voters, although the country actually has 2,365,000 people, including minors. Our sources reported that in the cities of Balkanabad, Kumdag, Khazar and Turkmenbashi only 18.8 thousand people came to the elections in all districts. The turnout was very low despite the fact that officials and secret services forced the population to come to the polls by threats. Our sources also reported that there was massive stuffing of ballots at the polling stations. Moreover, the ballots were done on color copy printers, on A4 paper. There were no numbers and full name of the voter on the ballots. Ballots could also be taken for deceased relatives. Some footage of the ballots’ stuffing was shown by the state-run Altyn Asyr TV channel and the Turkish TV channel TRT AWAZ covering the elections.