The authoritarian leader of Turkmenistan has urged exiled opposition leaders to return and take part in upcoming presidential elections. President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov also said in remarks published in the state newspaper Saturday that the legal framework has been set for creating a multiparty system. Presidential elections are to be held in 2012. Turkmenistan currently has only one political party, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which was formed on the base of the dissolved Soviet-era Communist Party. All declared opponents of the Turkmen regime have been either jailed or been forced to flee the country.
