As expected, Azerbaijan’s authoritarian President Aliyev has been confirmed in office. According to state media, he received almost 94 percent of the vote. However, it is widely doubted that the election was free and fair.
In Azerbaijan, the state media presented the authoritarian incumbent, Ilham Aliyev, as the clear winner of the early presidential election. After the country’s more than 6,500 polling stations closed, alleged election day polls were presented showing Aliyev receiving between 92.4 and 93.9 percent of the vote. This means that Aliyev will be at the head of the Caucasus republic for another seven years.
Election probably neither free nor fair
However, according to observers, the vote was neither free nor fair given the severe repression. The 62-year-old Aliyev, who took over the presidency from his father in 2003, had no serious competitor. All six opposing candidates were not only considered completely hopeless from the outset, but they even publicly supported Aliyev. The main opposition parties boycotted the election. Human rights activists also criticized the fact that numerous independent journalists and a well-known opposition politician had been arrested in recent months.
Aliyev surprisingly brought forward the election, which was actually only planned for 2025. He officially justified the move by saying that the president needed new legitimacy after conquering the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region last fall. However, political observers tend to assume that Aliyev now wants to quickly secure his power before discontent in society over problems such as high social inequality and rampant corruption increases further.