By RIA Novosti,
Baku : Vioting started Wednesday in presidential elections in the oil-rich former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan with President Ilham Aliyev certain to return for a second term.
More than 5,000 polling stations opened in 125 constituencies across the country at 8:00 a.m. (03:00 GMT), with polls due to close at 7:00 pm (14:00 GMT). Early voting went ahead quietly despite a boycott by the main opposition parties over election fraud allegations.
Around 4.8 million people have been registered to vote.
The six main opposition parties said they would boycott the polls citing a clampdown on dissent, media restrictions and electoral fraud. The six candidates running against Aliyev are not serious political rivals to the incumbent leader.
“The long-awaited day of Azerbaijan’s presidential elections has arrived. This event is very important for us and I think that all voters should take part in the elections,” said Mazahir Panahov, who heads the Azerbaijani Central Election Commission.
Unlike the 2003 presidential and 2005 parliamentary elections, which saw violent clashes with police after the opposition refused to accept the results and staged mass protests, Wednesday’s vote is expected to pass calmly.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has dispatched 480 observers to the polls, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has sent 30 monitors.
Opposition politician Gulamhusein Alibeyli, who is running as an independent candidate in the presidential race, told journalists that no violations had been observed during the voting. “There are all the conditions for the Azerbaijani people to vote freely in a democratic environment and choose one of the seven presidential candidates,” Alibeyli said.
Azerbaijan’s leader Aliyev, who took over as president when his father, Heydar, stepped down in 2003, won 76.84% of the vote in that year’s presidential election.