Turkmen assembly sets presidential polls

ASHGABAT, Dec 26 (Reuters) Turkmenistan's top legislative body decided today to hold polls on February 11 to replace authoritarian President Saparmurat Niyazov and launched a slow process of picking new leadership for the Central Asian state.

President-for-life Niyazov, who died last week after ruling the ex-Soviet state for 21 years, left no heir apparent. His passing prompted fears of a power vacuum in a country with vast gas reserves seen as important in the West and Russia.

After setting the election date, 2,500 delegates to the Halk Maslakhaty including government and regional officials, tribal chiefs and others picked by Niyazov, started putting together a list of candidates to run in the poll.

In a sign of respect to the late leader referred to at home as Turkmenbashi or Head of the Turkmen, his seat on the stage of a huge hall remained empty.

A Reuters correspondent inside the hall said representatives from Turkmenistan's five regions put forward more than 10 candidates to run in the election but it was not clear how many will be given the green light to stand.

As participants, some wearing traditional grey gowns, started picking candidates, Turkmenistan-watchers looked for clues as to who might replace Niyazov and whether anyone can grab unfettered power in the country of 5 million people.

Most candidates were little heard of, such as Durdy Durdiyev, a sports official, and Deputy Oil and Gas Minister Ishanguly Nuriyev.

Parakhat Yklymov, a Sweden-based opposition activist, suggested that presidential candidates could be formal figures behind whom the shadowy head of Niyazov's bodyguards stands.

''(Akmurad) Rejepov could be behind any of them,'' he said by telephone.

Turkmenistan, its leadership criticised for cracking down on dissent and human rights, has never held an election judged free and fair by Western observers. The opposition lives abroad and has no influence inside Turkmenistan.

Sunday's Soviet-style, lavish funeral of the man who dotted the nation with gilded portraits of himself, signalled that interim leaders would maintain his autocratic ways.

POWER STRUGGLE Diplomats cautioned that the situation was too unpredictable, and the acting government too secretive, to see how exactly the Muslim country would be run.

Niyazov crushed all dissent and modelled his security apparatus on the Soviet KGB, making it crucial for his successor to have the support of the powerful sector -- often referred to as ''siloviki'' in the ex-Soviet world.

''I don't know what will happen later on if there's any disagreement between the 'siloviki', but for the moment it is clear that they have agreed to back one candidate,'' another diplomat in Ashgabat told Reuters.

Deputy Prime Minister Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, 49, has stepped forward as acting president with the backing of the security leaders close to Niyazov, a former Soviet apparatchik.

It was unclear if the Halk Maslakhaty would change the constitution that bars the acting head of state from running for the presidency as some analysts have suggested.

Turkmenistan's exiled opposition joined forces and put forward Khudaiberdy Orazov, leader of the Watan movement, to run in the election. It was not clear though whether he will be allowed to do that.

While Niyazov was criticised in the West for his poor human rights record, policies such as free electricity and gas and extremely cheap petrol meant many did see him as the ''father of the nation'' depicted in ubiquitous state propaganda.

REUTERS MS BD1937