President Ilham Aliev unsurprisingly reappointed for a fifth term

Many opposition parties boycotted the election, as during the previous presidential election in 2018.

An election under control and without surprises. The authoritarian President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, in power for two decades, was re-elected on Wednesday February 7 for a fifth term, with more than 90% of the votes, according to partial results. Turnout stood at 67.7%, the head of the Central Election Commission said at a press conference.

Voters had the choice between seven candidates, including Ilham Aliev, who inherited power after his father died in 2003. But none of the other figures represented a real alternative and “all supported the president in the recent past”, notes the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Some even, during the campaign, praised Ilham Aliev, who “kept all its promises”.

The real opposition parties, crushed by years of repression, boycotted this election, which they described as “prank call”, as during the previous presidential election of 2018.

Polling stations open in Nagorno-Karabakh

In January, Ilham Aliev explained that he had called this early election, initially scheduled for 2025, to celebrate the start of a “new era” after the successful military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The head of state is riding high on his military victory against Armenian separatists in September, which put an end to three decades of secessionism marked by two wars.

In a symbolic gesture, President Aliev and his family slipped their ballots into the ballot box in Khankendi, the main city of Nagorno-Karabakh, called Stepanakert by the Armenians. Azerbaijani polling stations opened there for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan is also accustomed to the bottom places in rankings of human rights groups. The American democracy promotion organization Freedom House ranks it among the “worst of the worst” in terms of civil liberties.