OREANDA-NEWS On 18 February 2009 was announced, that the election of the new Mejlis of Turkmenistan came to an end after a second ballot was passed in constituency N 101 in Oguzkhan district in Mary province. Tahir Atambayev was elected to the national parliament from this constituency with 71,29% of votes.

90,63% of all voters registered with the district election commission cast their ballots in the election, the Turkmenistan.ru correspondent reports from Ashgabat quoting the Central Election Commission of Turkmenistan. The newly elected deputy is 40. He is Uzbek by nationality. He is working as English language teacher in secondary school N 3 in the city of Bayramali.

It should be recalled that under the new constitution of Turkmenistan, the number of deputies in the national parliament increased from 65 to 125. The majority of deputies were elected in the nationwide parliamentary elections on 14 December 2008. 123 deputies were elected out of 286 candidates.

According to the decision by the Central Election Commission, reelections were held in two single member constituencies - constituency N 84 in Sakar district of Lebap province where candidates failed to win enough votes and constituency N 101 in Oguzkhan district in Mary province where an elected deputy withdrew his deputy mandate for family reasons.