If there is one thing that unites the official candidates for the Turkmen presidential elections that is that they have all stated their commitment to pursuing a continuation of the policies of the country’s late leader Saparmurat Niyazov.
Other than that, the candidates have already been setting forward their own proposals for how to build on Niyazov’s legacy. Interim president, and the only likely winner of the Feb. 11 polls, Kurbanguly Berdymuhammedov, has already been meeting with voters in some Turkmen cities and focused his electoral campaign on education and pension reform. He has also committed to developing an intensive city-building program, including a scheme to build a leisure, and ecological reserve complex in the Balkan velyat in western Turkmenistan.
Among some of the promises covered in Western press were his calls for greater Internet access, which has led some to speculate on whether his future government might augur a new season of relative openness. Given that the country has some of the lowest Internet penetration figures in the world, however, the promise seems neither revolutionary nor problematic to achieve, although Berdymuhammedov has vowed to execute his program on a grand scale, saying that “Internet should be accessible to every one of our citizens.”
These comments cannot but have been intended for international consumption, as the United States begins to make more audible demands about the need for some semblance of democratic transition. Similarly, his own electorate was probably not first in mind when Berdymuhammedov stated that the presidential elections would be “just, honest and open.”
The interim regime is obviously concerned for the right image to be projected to the outside world, although they may not be going about it in the best way possible. As Deutsche Welle has already reported, international journalists will be limited to those countries considered friendly to the former and emerging regimes:

Turkmen authorities have decided not to extend the list of accredited international reporters in the run-up to the elections. Already a number of friendly countries, including China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and a number of Arab states, have been issued the necessary documentation. However, the Turkmen Ministry of Foreign Affairs is reportedly not prepared to widen the number of nationalities eligible for journalist visas.
“We are awaiting an order from the interim President Berdymuhammedov, and if we get it, we will carry it out,” a source in the foreign ministry said.
A source in the military services also revealed that some ten journalists will connections to foreign media organizations have been placed under strict surveillance by the special services. Their phones have been disconnected, they have been summoned by the authorities, had their passports confiscated and threatened if they continue to pursue their reporting activities.

Berdymuhammedov also vowed to rid the country of drugs being trafficked into the country from neighbouring Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. The assurance was announced as part of his latest comments on the campaign trail.

“It’s a big problem, and the only lucky thing is that drugs are not produced here, but imported illicitly,” deputy Prime Minister Kurbanguly Berdymuhammedov said in comments broadcast on state television.

< …>

Berdymuhammedov promised to strengthen border protection and toughen legal punishment for drug dealers. He called on the country’s only political party, youth organizations and trade unions to fight drug use “on the spot.”
“In villages, people usually know who uses drugs,” he said in televised remarks.

A second candidate, deputy Minister for Oil and Gas and Mineral Resources Ishankuly Nuriyev has also toured Ashgabat and Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) on his campaign trail. He has opted to place emphasis on the need to further develop the economy and the need to reform the agricultural sector, healthcare, education, and social welfare. While in the Balkan velyat, where Turkmenbashi is situated, he promised to facilitate the development of cattle breeding and to build an agro-industrial complexes in the Magtymguly and Etrek etraps specializing in the growth and processing of subtropical vegetation. Nuriyev also hinted at the need to enhance the tourism potential of the Caspian coastal region and for the building of health facility for children.
The hakim of Abadan etrap in the Ahal velyat, Orazmurat Karajayev, visited the Mary and Ahal provinces in the southeast of the country, two of the politically most crucial areas of Turkmenistan. His electoral program has stressed the importance of scientific progress, education, further development of the energy sector, improvement in the agricultural sector, transport and communications, and private enterprise. He has also been mindful to underscore the importance of pursuing the orderly execution of the course undertaken in Saparmurat Niyazov’s lifetime to modernize the economy.
Governor of the Karabekaul etrap in Lebap velyat, Mukhammednazar Gurbanov, met with voter in Turkmenabat (formerly Chardjou), in northeastern Turkmenistan, where he stated that a priority of government led by him would the development of education and culture, and the furthered cultivation of economic ties with international partners.
Speaking in Ahal, Gurbanov cited the vital importance of attracting foreign investment, reform of the agricultural sector, and the creation of social welfare structures.
The parameter of his efforts in government, Gurbanov said, would be founded on the UN-sponsored ” Strategy of Economic, Political and Cultural Development of Turkmenistan for the Period of Up to 2020.” He also stated that their would be no move to reversing the policy already under way.
The mayor of Turkmenbashi, Ashirniyaz Pomanov, placed particular importance on the regeneration of the spiritual and moral values of the Turkmen people and the creation of conditions that will enable the “harmonious development of the younger generations.”
Pomanov also asserted his belief in the need to protect socially vulnerable categories of the population and promised that he would not overlook the needs of young families, disabled pensioners, war veterans and invalids.
At a meeting with voters in Ahal, Pomanov said that he was committed to paying particular attention to the development of modern communications, namely the improvement of postal and telegraphic services and intensive expansion of wireless networks, particularly in rural areas.”
Agriculture is need of a radical overhaul, Pomanov said, in particular as far as concerns production, processing and livestock breeding.
First deputy Governor of the Dashoguz velyat Amanniyaz Atajikov met with voters in his province’s capital, where he vowed that his domestic and international policies would reflect the course undertaken by Niyazov.
Among his priorities as potential president, he cited the improvement of social welfare among all segments of the population, the development of science and education, and the cultivation of national devotion among young people.
In the sphere of international relations, he stated his determination to maintain the preeminence of neutrality. In agriculture, he spoke of the importance that daikhan (farmers) become “the genuine masters of their own land,” a promise that has been interpreted by observers as a commitment to introduce the concept of private land ownership into the country.
The geography of electoral campaigning will be interesting to note in view of the decision to nominally select candidates from all of the countries five velyats. As ferghana.ru reported some days ago, Turkmen authorities have contrived to place the Mary velyat under the scrutiny of the security services until the election takes place.
The province’s candidate to the election was Berdymuhammedov, who evidently picked himself for the task although he is not even from that region. As ferghana.ru notes, “even in the Khalk Maslahaty Berdymuhammedov represents the Cabinet and not the Mary velyat.”
Moreover, it is believed that “Berdymuhammedov’s self-nomination from the Mary velyat was deliberate because the authorities fear that some other candidate may be nominated from the down-trodden region.” The area poses particular distress to parties determined to pursue continuity against all odds as it is the most populous, culturally developed, and political region in the entire country.
Karajayev and Berdymuhammedov has been the only candidate reported to have visited the region so far, although others may soon follow. What the individuals have to say in these places, granted it is almost certainly from an approved script, may be worth paying close attention to.
On a related issue, the government has passed a decree ensuring that all candidates spend an equal amount of funds on their campaigns, Russian news agency Interfax has reported. The ruling, published on Friday in the official Turkmen press, has responsibility doe overseeing the decree is enforced with the Central Elections Commission. Once again, this can only serve to give an unfair advantage to the interim president, who has benefited from all the free publicity afforded to him by state television broadcasts of his executive decisions.
One such example of free public exposure was the televised ceremony on Friday to plant 16,000 trees in memory of Niyazov, as reported by the Associated Press. This follows on an order from Berdymuhammedov to built yet another gigantic monument to the late president. As the Associated Press reported:

People walked to the Presidential Path of Health, a recreation area in the capital Ashgabat, to plant the fir and cypress trees to “immortalize the grandiose deeds of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi,” television reported.

Not that the interim president has been the only one to resort to riding Niyazov’s coattails. All six candidates jointly visited Niyazov’s grave in Kipchak on Friday, RIA-Novosti reported.
For its own part, the United States has been remarkably restrained in its calls for democratic reforms in the country. For instance, while calling for political change in the country, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher told Voice of America that decisions on reforms will have to be ” made in the end in Turkmenistan.”
This sentiment was an almost verbatim repetition of a remark by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack during a press briefing on Jan. 3, in which he said that the “Turkmenistan Government is going to have to moderate their own political process” in answer to a question about whether the U.S. government would offer support to exiled political activists.
Notably, Boucher was reported McCormack during Wednesday’s State Department press briefing as being “on the road,” possibly in the Central Asian region. McCormack could not confirm which countries Boucher would indeed be visiting over this period.
Meanwhile, as the Associated Press reports, there has been some concern voiced by international nongovernmental organizations, who already signs of renewed despotism in Berdymuhammedov’s governing style

Noting that Berdymukhamedov had hinted at greater openness for the reclusive ex-Soviet state, U.S. democracy rights organization Freedom House, meanwhile, called on the United States and the European Union to push Turkmen leaders toward more democracy.
“The United States and the EU should use this unique moment in history following Niyazov’s death to push for democratic reform while the window is still open,” Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said in a statement. “Otherwise we may be looking at another 15 years of darkness and repression for the people of Turkmenistan.”