A second political party was created in Turkmenistan on Tuesday, ending the more than two decades the Central Asian nation spent as a one-party state, local media said.
Since 1991, Turkmenistan has been ruled by the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which was a transformation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Turkmen Republic. It was the only single-party state in the post-Soviet space. The party was led by late President Saparmurat Niyazov for 15 years and then by current President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
In April, the association of industrialists and entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan formed an organizing committee for a new party: The Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. An advertisement calling for people to join the new party was published a month later.
Orzamammed Mammedov, the union’s senior official, was chosen to head the party at the founding congress.
President Berdymukhamedov has repeatedly called for new parties in the country. In 2010, he proposed forming a Peasant Party to provide ideological support for agricultural reforms. In February, he called for setting up an opposition party.
In January, parliament passed a law on political parties regulating their formation and relations with the government.
