Turkmen president re-elected

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov won a new five-year term by capturing 97 percent of the vote, election officials said yesterday, but a Western expert called the vote a democratic sham.
All of Berdymukhamedov's seven opponents praised his leadership in their campaigns, making the authoritarian leader's victory in Sunday's election a mere formality. Berdymukhamedov improved on his 2007 performance, in which he secured his first term in this Central Asian nation with 89 percent of the vote.
Central Election Commission chief Orazmyrat Niyazliyev called the vote democratic and said it contributed to national unity.