ASHGABAT -- Authorities in Turkmenistan are forcing private taxi drivers to have a portrait of recently elected President Serdar Berdymukhammedov in the windshields of their vehicles.
Traffic police in the southeastern region of Mary told taxi drivers that the portrait requirement was just as mandatory as having a driver's license and car registration documents.
Serdar Berdymukhammedov was sworn in on March 19. His authoritarian predecessor is his father Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who had ruled the tightly controlled former Soviet republic with an iron fist since 2006 while building a cult following that left no room for dissent.
Separately, authorities in another eastern region, Lebap, ordered local officials to download songs by the former president as ringtones and electronic versions of books he wrote on their mobile phones, RFE/RL correspondents reported, citing local officials.
Serdar Berdymukhammedov's victory in a snap presidential election on March 12 came after his 64-year-old father announced in February that he was stepping down to give way to "young leaders." The next day the country's rubber-stamp parliament set the date for the early presidential vote.
In September, Serdar Berdymukhammedov turned 40, the minimum age to run for president. He ran against eight other candidates, all of whom were known for being loyal to his father, and won with nearly 73 percent of the vote.
Since the country became independent following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, no election in Turkmenistan has been deemed free and fair by right groups and Western election monitors.
RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported massive violations during the vote and election campaign, including ballot substitution, voters casting multiple ballots, and pressure on voters to cast ballots for Serdar Berdymukhammedov.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov came to power in a rigged election following the death of long-serving President Saparmurat Niyazov.
Under Berdymukhammedov, living standards plummeted despite the country sitting on the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and surging commodities prices.