Turkmen leader wins 97 per cent of vote in presidential election Even by the standards of the former Soviet states, the margin of Mr Berdymukhamedov's victory is exceptionally large. Officially, Yarmukhammet Orazgulyev, the energy and industry minister, came second with 1.2 percent of the vote. "The president of Turkmenistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has been re-elected after winning the most votes," the AFP news agency quoted Orazmurat Niyazliev, the central election commission chief, as saying. The Turkmen central election commission also said that turnout at Sunday's election had been nearly 97 per cent. Mr Berdymukhamedov's victory may have been comprehensive but it was not unexpected. Turkmenistan is one of the most autocratic and repressive countries in the world. Seven opponents had officially competed against Mr Berdymukhamedov, a 54-year-old former dentist who has been in power since February 2007, but they were all government ministers who voiced strong support for their leader's policies. European elections monitors declined to send a team to scrutinise the vote because they said that there was simply no democracy in Turkmenistan but a group of observers from the former Soviet Union whitewashed the election. The Russian news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Sergei Lebedev, the head of the former Soviet states" observer mission, saying the Turkmen election had been democratic. Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea and holds the world's fourth largest gas reserves.