President Aliyev presented as election winner in Azerbaijan In Germany, Lufthansa ground crews are on strike – many flights are canceled

In authoritarian Azerbaijan, the incumbent Ilham Aliyev was, as expected, presented as the clear winner of the early presidential elections. After the country’s more than 6,500 polling stations closed, Azerbaijani state media published purported election day polls showing Aliyev receiving between 92.4 and 93.9 percent of the vote. Wednesday’s vote, in which almost 77 percent of eligible voters took part, according to the electoral commission, ensures Aliyev another seven years at the helm of the oil-rich South Caucasus republic on the Caspian Sea. However, according to critical observers, the vote was neither free nor fair, given the heavy repression.

For example, criticism was expressed that the 62-year-old Aliyev, who took over the presidency from his father Heydar Aliyev in 2003, had no serious competitor in this vote. All six opposing candidates were not only considered completely hopeless from the start, but even publicly supported Aliyev. In protest, the two main opposition parties boycotted the elections, which were attended by more than six million people. Human rights activists also criticized the arrests of numerous independent journalists and a well-known opposition politician in recent months.

Aliyev surprisingly brought forward the elections, which were not actually scheduled for 2025. He officially justified the move by saying that the president needed new legitimacy after conquering the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone last fall. Political observers, however, tend to assume that the authoritarian president, with the triumph of Karabakh behind him, now wants to quickly secure his power before social dissatisfaction over problems such as high social inequality and rampant corruption grows further.

Although Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijani territory, until a few months ago it was mainly inhabited by ethnic Armenians. For decades, Karabakh was a battle between the two neighboring ex-Soviet republics. The attacks by the Azerbaijani army caused more than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians to flee. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of expulsion and “ethnic cleansing”. (sda/dpa)