Azerbaijan strongman Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday secured a fourth consecutive term in a snap election boycotted by the main opposition parties, exit polls showed. An Aliyev victory was widely seen as a foregone conclusion with the Caspian state's downtrodden opposition unable to mount a serious challenge to his authoritarian rule.
In power for 15 years, Aliyev received 82.7 percent of the vote, according to a government-commissioned exit poll, while the private French pollster Opinion Way said he garnered 86.5 percent of the vote. His position has been boosted in recent years by the steady influx of petrodollars into his government's coffers.
Opposition parties in the tightly controlled Caucasus nation have said the elections are a sham and accused the authorities of preparing to rig the vote. They have also condemned Aliyev's surprise - and unexplained - decision to hold the election six months ahead of schedule, saying it was aimed at shortening the campaign period and hampering efforts to prevent vote-rigging. "All previous elections in Azerbaijan were falsified and held with blatant violations of the electoral law. These elections will be no exception," said the executive secretary of the opposition Republican Alternative Movement, Natig Jafarli. The authorities rejected the opposition's criticism, insisting the vote was free and fair.
"Azerbaijan is on a firm and irreversible path of democratic development. A free, open and transparent environment has been created in Azerbaijan for the presidential elections," foreign ministry spokesman, Hikmet Hajiyev, told AFP. Some 5.2 million people were registered to vote in polls monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Central Election Commission was to begin announcing official results later Wednesday.