Turkmenistan has amended the constitution to expand the powers of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.

Turkmenistan amended its constitution on September 14 in a way that will allow President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to stay in power indefinitely, following in the footsteps of his predecessor, who ruled the country until his death.

Amendments approved by the council of elders and the parliament - and immediately signed by Berdymukhammedov - remove the 70-year age limit for presidential candidates and extend the presidential term to seven years from five.

The age limit was the only legal barrier that would have eventually prevented the 59-year-old Berdymukhammedov from running and winning one vote after another.  His current, second term ends in 2017.

Berdymukhammedov has run Turkmenistan since his predecessor, President Saparmurat Niyazov, died in 2006.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is the third leader in Central Asia to get right to rule indefinitely.

Recall that Kazakhstan's veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev was in effect declared president-for-life in May 2007.  Kazakhstan’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to allow Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, to run for the presidency an unlimited number of times. 

The constitutional referendum that took place in Tajikistan in May this year approved the amendment eliminating the term limit for incumbent President Emomali Rahmon.  The term-limit amendment applies only to Emomali Rahmon, who owns the status of the “Leader of the Nation.”