ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Turkmenistan's authoritarian president has been inaugurated for his second five-year term after winning an election with 97 percent of the vote.

Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov was sworn in Friday at a ceremony attended by some 3,000 people in the capital, Ashgabat.

At a government meeting this week, Berdymukhamedov reaffirmed vows that he would install a multiparty democracy and develop a civil society.

He came to power after the 2006 death of Saparmurat Niyazov. Berdymukhamedov has diluted much of the cult of personality established around Niyazov, but his promises of reform have been largely unmet.

Turkmenistan is the subject of avid interest from the West, Russia and China for its natural gas reserves, estimated to be the world's fourth-largest.

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