AZERBAIJAN: POLITICS - Polls open in Azerbaijan's presidential election with incumbent president Ilham Aliyev expected to secure his third five-year term

Record ID: 218335

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN: POLITICS - Polls open in Azerbaijan's presidential election with incumbent president Ilham Aliyev expected to secure his third five-year term
  • Date: 9th October 2013
  • Summary: PAN OF ELECTORAL OFFICIALS STANDING TO NATIONAL ANTHEM
  • Embargoed: 24th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABP5OOJLQ3POMTTEWFHFRCJWUH
  • Story Text: Azerbaijani voters went to presidential elections on Wednesday (October 9) where Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev looks certain to gain a third five-year term in power, extending his family's rule in the oil-producing South Caucasus state.
    Polls opened at 0800 local time (0300GMT) with polling stations already brimming with voters.
    Mainly Muslim Azerbaijan, a country of 9 million people, has made progress in raising living standards since gaining independence in 1991, but faces criticism over its human rights record under Aliyev and his father Heydar.
    In 2009 Aliyev, who succeed his father in 2003, signed into law a constitutional amendment which removed the limitation of two consecutive terms for the presidency, thereby allowing himself to stand for three or more consecutive terms.
    Opposition protests against Aliyev, have been violently dispersed by riot police and rights groups accuse Aliyev of curbing dissent and freedom of speech in Azerbaijan, which is criss-crossed by oil and natural gas pipelines exporting fuel to Europe.

    "I voted for the president, because he is the person who secured stability in the republic during the last 10 years of his rule and we saw clear results of his activity. I think he will be working hard in the future as well for the sake of the country, for the sake of stability, peace and prosperity," Baku resident Iskander Kerimov said.
    More then five million officially registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in slightly more then 5.000 poling stations throughout the country and abroad.
    The voters will have to pick out of ten candidates, with only one of them seen at least as a competitor to 51- year- old incumbent President Ilham Aliyev.
    Last August the National Council of Democratic Forces chose Jamil Hasanly, a 61-year-old historian, as its second choice to challenge 51-year-old Aliyev, after their first choice, famous screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov, was barred from running by the country's Central Election Commission for his dual Russian-Azerbaijani citizenship.
    Most independent analysts, however, doubt that Azerbaijan's opposition candidate will be able to beat in today's elections, but many say President Aliyev will have to address burning issues like corruption and human rights abuses.
    An overwhelming 86 percent of Azerbaijan citizens supported Aliyev two weeks ahead of elections, according to a survey conducted by the renowned U.S. polling firm Arthur J. Finkelstein and Associates, but social media networks may begin to influence the younger generation in a country where the media remains under the state's control.
    The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has in the past rated Azerbaijan's elections as falling short of international standards. It sent up to 300 long and short term election observers in Azerbaijan to monitor October 9 presidential elections.
    Located between Iran and Russia, Azerbaijan is a vital energy supplier to Europe and a transit route for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Critics say this has made the West turn a blind eye to shrinking freedoms since Aliyev came to power in 2003.
    Polls will close at 2000 local time (1500GMT).
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