President Aliyev extensively anticipated to win one other time period after takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway enclave.
Voters in Azerbaijan are casting their ballots in an election extensively anticipated to present President Ilham Aliyev one other seven-year time period after a military offensive final yr introduced the Armenian separatist area of Nagorno-Karabakh beneath his authorities’s management.
A fifth time period for Aliyev is seen as a forgone conclusion in Wednesday’s vote additionally due to a crackdown on impartial media and the absence of any actual opposition.
Azeri forces launched a blitz in September that pressured separatists, who had been controlling the territory for greater than three many years, to disarm. Tens of 1000’s of ethnic Armenians had been forced to flee to neighbouring Armenia.
Eager to capitalise on that victory, Aliyev introduced a snap election for February that was initially scheduled for 2025. He mentioned he needed the ballot to “mark the start of a brand new period”, through which Azerbaijan has full management over its territory.
“I’ll vote for the victorious chief Ilham Aliyev,” Sevda Mirzoyeva, a 52-year-old resident from the capital Baku, advised The Related Press information company earlier than polling stations opened.
The president ordered the lightning offensive final yr after a nine-month blockade to regain full management of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
In saying the election in January, Aliyev mentioned that polls could be held for the primary time within the Karabakh area after the exodus of ethnic Armenians.
Aliyev, 62, was first elected president in 2003 after the dying of his father Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer who had dominated Azerbaijan since 1993.
He was re-elected in 2008, 2013 and most not too long ago in 2018 with 86 % of the votes. All of the elections had been denounced by opposition events as rigged.
In 2009, Aliyev amended the structure so he may run for an infinite variety of presidential phrases, a transfer criticised by rights advocates who say he may change into president for all times.
His time in energy has been marked by the introduction of more and more strict legal guidelines that curb political debate in addition to arrests of opposition figures and impartial journalists, together with within the run-up to the election.
Aliyev faces no actual problem from the six different candidates, a few of whom have publicly praised him.
Azerbaijan’s two foremost opposition events – Musavat and the Common Entrance celebration – usually are not collaborating within the vote.
Musavat chief Arif Hajili advised the AP that the celebration wouldn’t be collaborating within the elections as a result of they don’t seem to be democratic.
“Many journalists and political activists are in jail. There are greater than 200 political prisoners. There are severe points with election legislation and the election commissions are principally beneath the authorities’ affect,” Hajili mentioned.
Ali Kerimli, chief of the Common Entrance celebration, has mentioned that calling for an early election with out public debate exhibits that the authorities are afraid of political competitors.
In principle, there might be two rounds of voting if a candidate fails to safe greater than 50 % of the vote within the first spherical, however Aliyev is extensively anticipated to be re-elected in a landslide, as he has been in earlier elections.
Round six million voters are registered for the election monitored by observers from the Organisation for Safety and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
