Azerbaijan leader Ilham Aliyev calls snap presidential elections for 7 February

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Thursday called snap presidential elections in February. Elections in the country was previously scheduled for 2025. According to a decree published in the tightly-controlled country, Aliyev has asked the central election commission to ensure that the vote takes place “on 7 February, 2024”. Aliyev’s popularity is soaring after his military recaptured the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenian separatists in a lightning offensive in September. A state-run pollster recently said 75 per cent of the population approve of Aliyev’s handling of the conflict, which saw the mass exodus of ethnic Armenians living in the long-disputed mountainous territory. Since 2003, Aliyev has been ruling the energy-rich country with an iron fist after he succeeded his father, Heydar. His government has long faced international criticism over the country’s poor democratic record. In 2009, Azerbaijan adopted constitutional amendments that removed two-term limit to the presidential mandate, meaning Aliyev could potentially become a president for life. In 2016, he appointed his wife Mehriban Aliyeva as first vice president. With inputs from AFP