They declared the country unsafe for Russian citizens and openly criticised Mr Niyazov's totalitarian rule.
Mr Berdymukhamedov chipped off just enough from Niyazov's personality cult to make some space for himself.
Mr Berdymuhammedov sits on an ordinary chair for televised cabinet meetings, unlike Niyazov who occupied a gold throne.
However, Mr Niyazov has an easy ride: when he is at the wheel, other traffic is barred from the road.
He has increased the number of years children attend school and restored pensions withdrawn under Niyazov to more than 100, 000 people.
Under Niyazov, humiliated officials were handcuffed as soon as they were fired.
Niyazov attached such importance to his own epic account of the Turkmen nation that questions on the text appeared in the national driving test.
Though criticising Niyazov is taboo, the official line is that his altyn asir (golden age) has been superseded by Mr Berdymuhammedov' s taze galkynysh (great revival).
But all 288 candidates stressed their support of the president: they were either members of the ruling Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, launched by Niyazov, or were state-approved independents.
In mid-April, Mr Niyazov and Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, signed a big gas deal in Moscow and agreed to revoke a ten-year-old dual-citizenship treaty between the two countries.
All opponents to Mr Niyazov have been forced to flee.
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The huge rotating gold statue of Niyazov may continue to tower over Ashgabat, the capital, but the months of the year were returned to their original names last spring.
But the similarities became still more striking this spring when Turkmenbashi the leader of all Turkmen, as Mr Niyazov likes to be called decided to get rid of his country's 100, 000 Russians.
Niyazov had renamed them in 2002: April was called Gurbansoltan, in honour of his mother, and September was Ruhnama, the title of his spiritual book, which was mandatory reading in school.
Mr Berdymukhamedov's predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in late 2006, built a cult of personality in the country and was responsible for a number of maverick policies, including banning opera and renaming the months.
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Until recently, the parallel was most evident in both men's strong penchant for the personality cult although not even Stalin thought of building a gold statue of himself that rotates with the sun, as Mr Niyazov has in his capital, Ashgabat.
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