Azerbaijan's president set to win reelection in a snap vote, riding on a victory in Karabakh
The Hindu
Azerbaijanis are voting in a snap election almost certain to give incumbent President Ilham Aliyev another seven-year term
Azerbaijanis are voting on February 7 in a snap election almost certain to give incumbent President Ilham Aliyev another seven-year term, following his government’s swift reclaiming of a region formerly controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists.
Mr. Aliyev, 62, has been in power for more than 20 years, succeeding his father who was Azerbaijan's Communist boss and then president for a decade when it became independent after the 1991 Soviet collapse. The next Presidential vote was set for next year, but Aliyev called an early election shortly after Azerbaijani troops retook the Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian forces who controlled it for three decades.
Analysts suggested Mr. Aliyev moved the election forward to capitalize on his burst in popularity following September's blitz in Karabakh. He will be in the limelight in November when Azerbaijan, a country which relies heavily on revenues from fossil fuels, hosts a U.N. climate change conference.
Speaking before the polls opened at 0400 GMT, 52-year-old Baku resident Sevda Mirzoyeva said she will vote for “victorious” Aliyev, who “returned our lands, which were occupied for many years.”
Mr. Aliyev has declared that he wanted the election to “mark the beginning of a new era,” in which Azerbaijan has full control over its territory. On Wednesday, he and his wife cast their ballots in Khankendi, a city that was called Stepanakert by Armenians when it housed the headquarters of the self-declared separatist government.
The region, which had been known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, and large swathes of surrounding territory came under full control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia at the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Azerbaijan regained parts of it and most of the surrounding territory in 2020 in a six-week war, which ended with a Moscow-brokered truce. In December 2022, Azerbaijan started blockading the road linking the region with Armenia, causing food and fuel shortages, and then launched a September blitz that routed separatist forces in just one day and forced them to lay down arms.
