(Reuters) - Turkmenistan holds its first multi-party parliamentary election in its post-Soviet history on Sunday with all the candidates running on the same political line as strongman leader President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
Keen to burnish his image abroad as he seeks new gas export routes to bypass former imperial master Russia, the president, who wields virtually unlimited powers in the Central Asian nation of 5.5 million, allowed the creation of the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs before stepping down as leader of the ruling Democratic Party in August.
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