Official results of Turkmen early presidential election to be announced on March 14 - CEC head

ASHGABAT. March 13 (Interfax) - The results of the March 12 early presidential election in Turkmenistan will be officially announced on Monday, March 14, Chairperson of the Turkmen Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CEC) Gulmyrat Myradov said on Sunday.

The vote count is ongoing, he said at a press conference.

The voter turnout stood at 97.12% of those on the voter list, Myradov said.

On February 11, incumbent President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who has been in office for 15 years, announced his intention to cede his post to a young leader, and retained only the position of speaker of the Khalk Maslakhaty, the upper house of Turkmen parliament. The president instructed the CEC to prepare for an early presidential election.

The CEC registered 3,435,950 voters.

Nine candidates were running for president. Six candidates were nominated by the initiative groups from the five velayats (regions) and the city of Ashgabat, and three candidates were nominated by the Democratic Party, Agrarian Party and the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan. Among the candidates was Deputy Prime Minister Serdar Berdimuhamedow (son of incumbent President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow), who was nominated from the Turkmen Democratic Party.

The voting was monitored by 2,726 domestic observers as well as foreign observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Organization of Turkic States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and a number of neighboring countries.

An inauguration ceremony of the Turkmen president-elect will be held at the Oguzkhan Palace on March 19.