Baku, Feb 8, (dpa/GNA) – Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, secured re-election in the South Caucasus republic with 92.05% of the votes cast, after almost all the votes were counted, the electoral commission reported in Baku on Thursday.
Observers criticised the snap election in the authoritarian oil-rich country for a lack of genuine alternatives to the 62-year-old incumbent, who has held power since 2003. In the last election in 2018, Aliyev secured 86% of the votes.
Aliyev has now secured a mandate for the next seven years, after seizing control of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region last year.
None of the candidates had presented a convincing challenge to the incumbent, and a number of opposition parties had declined to participate on the grounds, that appropriate democratic conditions were lacking, Eoghan Murphy, head of the election observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in Baku.
Artur Gerasymov of the OSCE described conditions as “restrictive.”
The observers noted that none of the six challengers had seriously queried Aliyev’s policies, with the result that voters had no “real alternative.”
Considerable shortcomings had also been found during voting at more than 6,500 polling stations, they said, citing inadequate safeguards against fraudulent multiple voting. Six million people were entitled to vote.
The OSCE observers also pointed to increasing restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly in the country, and the detention of a number of independent journalists ahead of the poll.
Aliyev supporters came out onto the streets of Baku holding posters of the president and waving national flags. A firework display was held in Shusha in Karabakh to mark the victory.
Congratulations came in from Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping among others.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also congratulated Aliyev. Ukraine has received humanitarian aid from Azerbaijan, and both are former Soviet republics.
Aliyev called the early election, which was not due until 2025, after seizing the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, justifying the step as a need for legitimation after re-establishing the country’s territorial integrity.
Observers saw the move as exploiting his military success, and distracting from difficult economic conditions for the country’s people.
Azerbaijani troops seized parts of the region held by the Armenian minority in the autumn of last year. Around 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled across the border to Armenia, which accused Baku of “ethnic cleansing.”
Azerbaijan is a major energy supplier to the European Union. It is also holding the COP29 UN Climate Change Conference in November. The country of around 10 million people has long been criticised for its human rights record.
GNA