Turkmenistan recorded near-maximum turnout yesterday in elections that should see President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov cruise to a new term at the helm of the isolated but energy-rich nation.

The authoritarian Central Asian state’s leader, in power since the death in 2006 of eccentric dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, faced seven loyal members of the elite on the ballot, none of whom dared to criticise him during the campaign.

Voting took place in a festive atmosphere with bands playing traditional music while food and even presents were handed to voters, said an AFP reporter who was taken on a tour of polling stations by the election commission.

With the authorities making clear that voting was a national duty, the election commission said 96.28 per cent of the electorate had cast their ballot – still two per cent short of the figure for the last election.

Turkmen TV showed Mr Berdymukhamedov getting out of a basic white Lada car to cast his vote alongside his son, who observers said had never before been shown on the screens.

“Our hero President is the only one to take us along the true path. He is the Protector and pillar of the people,” voter Gozel Sopyyeva, 60, said at a polling station outside Ashgabat.

Mr Berdymukhamedov, a 54-year-old ex-dentist who became Mr Niyazov’s health minister after rising through the ranks of dentistry, won the last polls in 2007 with over 89 per cent and it would be a major surprise if he polled much less this time.

The elections are just the third in Turkmenistan’s post-Soviet history: Mr Niyazov won a notorious ballot in 1992 in which he was the sole candidate with 99.5 per cent and was then declared by Parliament president for life in 1999.

While energy-rich Turmenistan is promoting the elections as a new step in a programme of democratic reforms, Mr Berdymukhamedov’s promise last summer to include genuine opposition in the polls appears not to have been fulfilled.

“Even though there are eight candidates, there is no real campaign. They want to show there is competition but it is between themselves,” a diplomat said.