BAKU, February 7 (Reuters) – Outgoing Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is on course to obtain a new seven-year term following an early vote called for the end of 2023 in the wake of the conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave predominantly populated by Armenians.
Provisional results, established after counting a little more than half of the ballots, gave him 92.1% of the votes, better than the 86% obtained in 2018.
A projection developed by Oracle Advisory Group suggests that he could even obtain nearly 94% of the votes.
The outcome of the vote was in little doubt since the two main opposition forces had called for a boycott.
Iham Aliev succeeded his father Heydat as president of the country in 2003 and has always received more than 85% of the votes. These elections and their methods are systematically denounced by human rights organizations.
The authorities brush aside these criticisms and emphasize that the popularity of the 62-year-old head of state has increased further since the brief military campaign which led to the capture of Nagorno-Karabakh and the exile of hundreds of thousands of people. Armenians.
For Baku, Western criticism is mainly due to prejudices aimed at its predominantly Muslim population. (Nailia Bagirova; French version Nicolas Delame, edited by Sophie Louet)
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