Podcast | The elections that had no one on the edge of their seat

February 9, 2024 9:45 PM

President Ilham Aliyev has prolonged his decades-long rule of Azerbaijan, securing a fifth term after winning the presidential elections this week — elections that were marred by the absence of any real opposition and blatant electoral fraud.

On this week’s episode of the Caucasus Digest, we speak to Meydan TV editor Orkhan Mammad about the role of media in covering the elections, to political analyst and PhD candidate Bahruz Samadov about the mainstream opposition’s boycott of the vote, and to Javid Agha, a journalist and social media researcher, about his previous experience observing Azerbaijani elections.

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Ilham Aliyev casts his ballot in Stepanakert (Khankendi). Photo: Azertac.

2024 Azerbaijani Presidential Elections

Aliyev receives 92% in snap presidential election

OC Media

••2 min read

Azerbaijan’s central election commission has announced that President Ilham Aliyev has received 92% of the vote in snap presidential elections, according to preliminary results. The results would give Aliyev a fifth term as president, having succeeded his father in October 2003. In the previous election in 2018, electoral authorities announced he had won 86% of the vote. The Central Election Commission said voter turnout was 77%. Wednesday’s vote was accompanied by widespread reports of elec

2024 Azerbaijani Presidential Elections

Live updates | Azerbaijan holds snap presidential elections

OC Media

••0 min read

Azerbaijanis are going to the polls today to vote in snap presidential elections, being held a year before President Ilham Aliyev’s fourth term comes to an end.

President Ilham Aliyev casting his vote during the 2018 presidential elections in Azerbaijan. Image via president.az

2024 Azerbaijani Presidential Elections

Azerbaijan’s main opposition parties boycott the presidential elections

Ismi Aghayev

••2 min read

Azerbaijan’s largest opposition parties have vowed to boycott February’s presidential elections, citing repression and the lack of a democratic environment in the country. On Saturday, the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party announced they would not take part in the snap elections scheduled for February, citing Azerbaijan’s ‘current atmosphere of repression, mass arrests, and fear’. ‘The extraordinary election scheduled by [President] Ilham Aliyev for 7 February 2024 will not be an actual electi

2024 Azerbaijani Presidential Elections

Aliyev announces snap presidential elections for February

Ismi Aghayev

••2 min read

President Ilham Aliyev has announced that Azerbaijan will hold snap presidential elections on 7 February 2024, a year before his fourth term as president ends. Aliyev has served as Azerbaijan’s president since October 2003. In 2009, a public referendum removed a limit on the number of terms that a president could serve. Another referendum held in 2016 extended the presidential terms to seven years. The 2016 referendum also created the office of vice president, a position that has been held