3. Turkmenistan
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has continued the practice established by his predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov of restricting both political and civil rights of citizens of Turkmenistan, the next country on the list of countries without freedom of assembly. Although several laws were passed dealing with the freedom of assembly, it is impossible to get a permission for organizing a protest against the government and even asking for such a permit would result in serious repercussions. Those few protests that were held were mostly about social issues, but even they were broken down by the police. Considering that at the last election 96% of the voters showed up at the polling stations, with 97% of them voting for President Berdymukhammedov, it is hard to see why would anyone even thinking of protesting against such a popular leader.
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