Aliyev poised to win as Azerbaijan votes in snap presidential election
Al Jazeera
President Aliyev widely expected to win another term after takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway enclave.
Voters in Azerbaijan are casting their ballots in an election widely expected to give President Ilham Aliyev another seven-year term after a military offensive last year brought the Armenian separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh under his government’s control.
A fifth term for Aliyev is seen as a forgone conclusion in Wednesday’s vote also because of a crackdown on independent media and the absence of any real opposition.
Azeri forces launched a blitz in September that forced separatists, who had been controlling the territory for more than three decades, to disarm. Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians were forced to flee to neighbouring Armenia.
Keen to capitalise on that victory, Aliyev announced a snap election for February that was originally scheduled for 2025. He said he wanted the poll to “mark the beginning of a new era”, in which Azerbaijan has full control over its territory.
“I will vote for the victorious leader Ilham Aliyev,” Sevda Mirzoyeva, a 52-year-old resident from the capital Baku, told The Associated Press news agency before polling stations opened.
