Azerbaijani president on track for 94 percent landslide in tainted election
The vote comes just months after Ilham Aliyev declared victory in the decades-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is set to be reelected by an almost unanimous vote in an election on Wednesday that outside observers say was marred by a harsh crackdown against opposition activists and journalists.
According to an exit poll reported by state news wire Azertag, Aliyev received close to 94 percent of the vote, securing a fifth term in office.
Two other pollsters put the figure at 92 percent. Preliminary results are expected to be published later Wednesday, but the extension of his two decades in office is largely expected to be a formality.
According to Freedom House, the South Caucasus nation ranks among the least free countries in the world and “since the early 1990s, elections have not been considered credible or competitive by international observers.”
