Ilham Aliyev emerges victor of presidential election in Azerbaijan - Belarus Today

Ilham Aliyev emerges victor of the presidential election in Azerbaijan, declares Belarus Today newspaper, Azernews reports, citing Trend.

"The early presidential election in Azerbaijan was held on Wednesday. More than six million people voted in 6,537 voting places. Seven people ran for the top government position. On the morning of February 8, after processing 93.35 percent of the ballots by the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan, the present head of state, Ilham Aliyev leads with 92.05 percent of the votes,” the article says.

The author of the article recalls that in an interview with local TV channels in January, President Ilham Aliyev spoke in detail about the reasons for the change of election date, which was originally supposed to be held next year.

“The first reason is, of course, the beginning of a new era, which the presidential election will bless,” he said.

President Ilham Aliyev stated that since the presidential election is the most important election compared to all other elections, he considered that the first election to be held throughout the republic should be the presidential election.

“In addition, last October marked 20 years since the Azerbaijani people first entrusted their fate to President Ilham Aliyev. So the past election became a kind of plebiscite of trust, in which the right of the current leader to continue to govern the country was successfully confirmed.

Observers from different countries noted that the elections throughout Azerbaijan were organized impeccably, and voters showed high civic consciousness. The general director of the Russian Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies, Igor Korotchenko, said that such a turnout has never been observed in elections in EU countries.

None of the so-called democratic countries in the European Union, including France, can boast of such a voter turnout as in Azerbaijan. This is an indicator of the maturity of Azerbaijani civil society and the high responsibility of voters to ensure that their vote and their contribution really determine the future of the country,” the article notes.

The article says that the truly democratic nature of the election was emphasized by the international observer, Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, Valery Belsky:

As international observers, we visited two polling stations located in Karabakh, where active voting was also observed. We note the high activity of voters, the transparency of the voting process, and the friendliness and solemnity of all procedures. Azerbaijan is one of the leaders in democratic processes.

“The triumph of President Ilham Aliyev is an expected event. The level of trust in the current president in Azerbaijan is very high. There are several reasons for this,” the article says.

The author emphasizes that, firstly, the current head of state has made Azerbaijan one of the regional leaders over the past 20 years.

“Close relations with Türkiye have been established, largely due to friendship with the Turkish President. The Azerbaijani army has become a powerful military organism that can perform a wide range of tasks.

Secondly, the economic situation has improved, and economic growth is driven not only by the sale of gas, oil, and petroleum products but also by the creation of local production facilities. Thanks to the stability of the internal political situation and the rational approach of the country’s authorities to its economic development, Azerbaijan has become a desirable platform for investors,” the article says.

The article notes that speaking about the reasons for Ilham Aliyev’s victory in the presidential election, one cannot ignore another extremely important fact for Azerbaijanis: reunification with Karabakh.

“For three decades, the Karabakh problem was a sore point. In the end, it was President Ilham Aliyev who managed to restore justice, which raised his already high rating to the skies. It is symbolic that President Ilham Aliyev cast his vote in the election in Khankendi at one of the polling stations opened in returned lands. The Azerbaijani leader has a lot of work ahead. In his new term, he will have to finally resolve the issue of relations with Yerevan by concluding a peace treaty that will put an end to the long confrontation.

In addition, the West is increasingly paying attention to the South Caucasus. The most active is France, which has already begun sending weapons to Armenia. Paris, obviously, is pursuing two goals at once: to disrupt ties between Yerevan and Moscow and, at the same time, create a new point of tension for Baku, forcing it to waste energy to control the situation. However, taking into account the international support for Azerbaijan, the military-technical power of the country, as well as the fact that the Azerbaijanis rallied even more after the resolution of the Karabakh issue, we can say that Western provocations are unlikely to have any success," the article says.