Azerbaijan holds snap presidential election
- 7 February, 00:54
Azerbaijan is holding a snap presidential election amid the boycot by the country’s main opposition parties.
President Ilham Aliyev who has been in power since 2003 as the country’s fourth president, is running for the ruling New Azerbaijan Party in the election held before the termination of his fourth term next year. Aliyev announced the surprise snap election in December, which was originally scheduled for 2025. He did not explain the reasons to hold the snap election.
Aliyev is running against six other candidates who do not pose a real threat to the incumbent president.
The election has been boycotted by opposition parties. The major opposition force - Azerbaijani Popular Front Party - in a statement issued in December, stated that the elections would be held in “current atmosphere of repression, mass arrests, and fear”. Another main opposition party Musavat also boycotted the election, claiming that the government has not provided freedoms required for holding free and fair elections.
Aliyev’s challengers in the election are Chair of the Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Fazil Mustafa of the Great Order Party, Razi Nurullayev from the National Front Party, chair of the Great Azerbaijan Party Elshad Musayev, independent politician Zahid Oruj and chair of the Liberal Democratic Party Fuad Aliyev.
Some 6.5 million eligible voters will take part in the voting in 6,537 polling stations in Azerbaijan and abroad.
The presidential elections will be held for the first time in Karabakh region that remained under Armenian control for around three decades but was recaptured by Azerbaijan partly in the war in 2020 and during the lightning military operation last year. Over 22,000 voters have been registered in Azerbaijan’s recaptured territories of Shusha, Khojavand ,Khojaly, Agdere, Aghdam, Jabrayil, Fuzuli and Zangilan, as well as in Gubadli, Lachin and Kalbajar.
Aliyev is expected to win with a large margin due to his popularity following the country’s victory over Armenia in the war in 2020.
