Polls close in Azerbaijan election decried as shamby opposition

BAKU: Polls closed Sunday in Azerbaijan´s snap parliamentary election decried by the opposition as a sham and designed to strengthen President Ilham Aliyev´s grip on power without bringing any real change.

Faced with public discontent over a slowing economy Aliyev, 58, hoped to improve the government´s image by holding early elections and replacing discredited old elites with younger technocrats, critics said. Aliyev´s Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party promised that the election would be democratic, but the opposition accused the government of limiting their ability to campaign and several parties have boycotted the vote.

At a polling station in Baku, Vafa Alekperova, a 43-year-old schoolteacher, said she voted for a candidate of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party. "I trust the party and my hopes for a better future are tied to it," she said. Taxi driver Ilgar Gasymov, 58, said he "voted for an opposition candidate because only the opposition cares about ordinary people´s problems".

More than 5.3 million people were eligible to vote. Turnout stood at nearly 45 percent as of 1300 GMT, two hours before polls closed, said the central election commission, which was due to start releasing results later Sunday. Parliamentary elections had originally been scheduled for November this year, but in December 2019 Aliyev called early polls after a surprise self-dissolution of the legislature that is dominated by his ruling party.

The move followed a replacement of the prime minister and a number of veteran officials within the presidential administration and the government. Aliyev´s party, which faces little challenge from the embattled opposition, is expected to retain its majority in the legislature.

Analyst Anar Mammadli noted that public anger over economic problems has been growing in the South Caucasus country of nine million people. "Aliyev chose to hold elections eight months ahead of schedule as he fears that protest sentiment would grow further by November," he said. Highly dependent on energy exports, the country has since 2015 been hit by a drop in energy prices and the global economic downturn, and has sharply devalued its currency, the manat. With most powers concentrated in the presidency, parliament has a limited role in the Caspian nation´s political system. "There aren´t even minimal conditions in Azerbaijan for holding democratic elections," said Ali Karimli, leader of the opposition Popular Front party which is boycotting the polls. "There will be an imitation of an election in Azerbaijan," he told AFP ahead of the vote.

Electoral commissions are controlled by Aliyev´s party and all of the oil-rich country´s television stations have refused to allocate airtime to representatives of the opposition. Another prominent opposition leader, Isa Gambar of the Musavat party, decried draconian restrictions on the freedom of assembly in Azerbaijan where "people are being arrested and tortured" for taking part in peaceful protest rallies.

Karimli said there were now 130 political prisoners in the country. None of the elections held in Azerbaijan since Aliyev came to power have been recognised as free and fair by international observers. Aliyev has ruled the ex-Soviet state with an iron fist since he was first elected in 2003, after the death of his father, Azerbaijan´s Soviet-era Communist leader and former KGB general Heydar Aliyev.