Azerbaijan ruling party wins polls, opposition cries fraud

BAKU: Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling party celebrated Monday a win in parliamentary polls but the opposition claimed the election was ‘totally falsified’.

Faced with public discontent over a slowing economy, Aliyev, 58, hoped to boost the government’s image by holding early elections and replacing discredited old elites with younger technocrats.

Counting showed the Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party with 65 seats in the 125-member parliament, after 87 per cent of electoral precincts declared results in the first-past-thepost ballot, said central election commission chief Mazahir Panahov.

The sole opposition politician who made it to the new legislature was Erkin Gadirly of Republican Alternative Party (ReAl) party while all the other parties represented in the parliament, the Milli Majlis, are seen as proAliyev.

Vice Prime Minister and Yeni Azerbaijan executive secretary Ali Ahmedov congratulated his party on ‘yet another great victory’ after exit polls put it on a course to win a majority of seats.

“We are grateful to those who have voted in support of our president’s policies,” Ahmedov told journalists.

The ruling party – which faced little challenge from the embattled opposition – had promised a democratic election, but opposition parties accused the government of limiting their ability to campaign and several parties boycotted the vote.

“The elections were totally falsified,” opposition leader Arif Gadjily of the Musavat party told AFP after the polls closed, denouncing what he claimed was widespread ballot stuffing and multiple voting.