Azerbaijan's Aliyev re-elected as president for 5th consecutive term

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev secured a fifth consecutive term in elections on Wednesday, February 7, official results showed.

Tallies showed that Aliyev won the election with 92 percent of the vote after nearly all electoral precincts declared results, in a ballot held during a crackdown on independent media and in the absence of any real opposition, AFP reports.

The oil-rich nation's main opposition parties boycotted the vote, which one opposition leader, Ali Kerimli of the Popular Front party, called an "imitation of democracy".

"There are no conditions in the country for the conduct of free and fair elections," he said.

The six other candidates who were running were little-known and had praised Aliyev as a great statesman and commander-in-chief since he announced the election in December, a year ahead of schedule.

Aliyev, 62, was first elected president in 2003 after the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer who had ruled Azerbaijan since 1993. He was re-elected in 2008, 2013 and in 2018.

He then appointed his wife as first vice president.