Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov (center) casts his ballot as his son Serdar (right) stands with other family members at a polling station in Ashgabat in February 2017.
Polling stations have opened in Turkmenistan in a vote for all 125 members of a newly unicameral national legislature with diminished powers in the authoritarian Central Asian country.
The parliament is expected to mostly rubber-stamp moves initiated by "national leader" Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov in an unelected Halk Maslahaty (People's Council) and his presidential successor and son, Serdar Berdymukhammedov.
The elections on March 26 also include local and provincial assemblies.
The elder Berdymukhammedov has spent years further quashing dissent and independent media in the gas-rich country of around 6 million people after taking over controversially following the death of the country's first post-independence dictator, "President-for-life" Saparmurat Niyazov.
For years, critics have warned that 65-year-old Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's moves were made to secure his lifetime leadership and the succession of presidency to his son and grandchildren.
None of Turkmenistan's elections has been regarded as free or fair since its exit from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has sent a small election-assessment mission for the March 26 balloting but said it "will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting [or] counting and tabulation on election day."
Its members planned to "visit a small number of polling stations on the day," it said.
Turkmenistan's bicameral National Council voted in January to convert the upper house into a People's Council of appointees with the elder Berdymukhammedov in charge and broad prerogatives.
The reform was proposed by the elder Berdymukhammedov around 10 months after handing the presidency to his son and less than two years after he created the upper house.
Under the hastily imposed reforms, the People's Council is the "supreme power" with authority to change the constitution and is separate from the legislature.
Its powers extend to domestic and foreign policy.
In the parliamentary voting on March 26, polling stations were scheduled to be open from 7 a.m. local time (0200 GMT/UTC) to 7 p.m.
Voting was also planned near Turkmenistan's diplomatic missions abroad.
Nearly 15,000 candidates were nominated and registered for the elections across the country.
Two hundred and fifty-eight were competing for the national parliament, or Mejlis.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has continued to meet with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, since passing the presidency to Serdar Berdymukhammedov.
The Turkmen economy is heavily dependent on China, Russia, and Iran.
Reporters Without Borders ranks only Iran, Eritrea, and North Korea worse than Turkmenistan on press freedoms.
