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Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2024 8:34 pm
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Azerbaijan's Aliyev officially wins by a landslide in an election that monitors say was restrictive

Azerbaijan's Aliyev officially wins by a landslide in an election that monitors say was restrictive
https://apnews.com/article/azerbaijan-e ... 1729933f0c12:39 PM GMT, February 9, 2024
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has officially won another term in office with 92.12% of the vote, the country’s Central Election Commission said Friday.
Election monitors, however, have expressed concern about the vote. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Thursday that the election took place in a restrictive environment with no real political competition.
Aliyev has been in power for more than 20 years. He had called an early vote while he was enjoying a surge in popularity after his forces swiftly reclaimed the Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists who had controlled it for three decades. He is now heading into another seven-year term in office.
The election Wednesday, “took place in a restrictive environment and ... was marked with the stifling of critical voices,” said Artur Gerasymov, special coordinator and leader of the OSCE group of election observers in Azerbaijan.
Aliyev was “not meaningfully challenged,” and because of limitations on independent media, civil society and other political parties, the contest was “devoid of genuine pluralism,” Gerasymov said Thursday. He added that the “near absence of analytical reporting” in Azerbaijani media hampered voters’ ability to make an informed choice.