Voters in Turkmenistan headed to the polls Sunday in a presidential election designed to cement the incumbent's hold on power in the authoritarian Central Asian nation.

(Reuters) - Turkmenistan holds a presidential election on Sunday which pits President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov against seven token challengers. Here is a look at Turkmenistan over the past 20 years: May 1992 - Turkmenistan adopts a new constitution proclaiming itself a democratic, secular state following the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and calls a presidential election for June ...

Turkmenistan voted in a token presidential election on Sunday that is certain to extend the rule of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov for another five years.More than 80 percent of the...

The incumbent, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, trounced seven token candidates.

Turkmenistan has swapped one absolute ruler for another

At one polling station in Turkmenistan, loudspeakers blared out a song Sunday praising the nation's protector, which is how the president has now come to be known.

Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been re-elected President of Turkmenistan for another term with a landslide majority of 97 percent votes, the Central Asian country's election officials announced on Monday.

What would it mean if Turkmenistan’s president could only garner the votes of 85 percent of his flock? That support for his gas-subsidized welfare and international neutrality was waning? Or that Middle East dissent could be spilling over to this vast desert of stability? Or that the populace doubts the greatness of his Era of Great Revival?  Or none of those things. Building a truly ...

The people of Turkmenistan will be going through the motions of voting for president this Sunday. But there is no doubt who will win - the authoritarian incumbent Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov.

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov won a new five-year term by capturing 97 percent of the vote, election officials said Monday, but a Western expert called the vote a democratic sham.