Not that it was ever in doubt, but now it is official: Turkmenistan’s president plans to grow old in power.



As speaker of parliament Akja Nurberdieva explained in remarks televised May 29, the constitutional commission is studying two proposals that will likely end with Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov serving indefinitely.



One provision would scrap the 70-year age limit at which a president can be elected. The other would extend the presidential term from five to seven years.



Under the current constitution, Berdymukhamedov, 57, would have been allowed to run for only three more five-year terms. The next presidential election had been slated for 2017, but that date could be pushed back to 2019.



Who chairs the constitutional commission that will decide on the changes? Why, the president of course.



Turkmenistan’s first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, dispensed with such fiddly legalities in December 1999, when parliament declared him president for life. As it turned out, that was only seven years anyway, as Niyazov dropped dead in 2006.



As has become usual, the impetus for the proposed constitutional reforms is being attributed to public demand.



Another constitutional fix for which people are clamoring, according to Berdymukhamedov, involves provisions for who will take over as caretaker should the serving president be unable to fulfill his duties.



That task should fall to the speaker of parliament, said Berdymukhamedov in the same state television report.



The irony here is that this was already the law before Niyazov’s death. Rules were quickly changed at the behest of the State Security Council to ensure that then-deputy Prime Minister Berdymukhamedov be quickly jostled into power.



For safe measure, the speaker of parliament at the time, Ovezgeldy Atayev, was swiftly dismissed and arrested on charges of trying to drive his daughter-in-law to suicide. Government officials claimed in 2012 that Atayev had since been released, although there has been no independent verification of his whereabouts.



Berdymukhamedov said he has also received calls for a rule requiring that the functions of the presidency be handed to the speaker for the two-month period ahead of elections. The detail is likely a formality, but the suggestion that anybody other than the president could even momentarily be endowed with leader-like power is an intriguing one.



Chris Rickleton contributed reporting.