Sluggish pre-election campaign confirms absence of alternative at Azerbaijani election

The agitation campaign before the early presidential election in Azerbaijan was dull and inconspicuous, the authorities gave up active propaganda, so as not to draw unnecessary attention to the factual absence of rivalry, the analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have confirmed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Azerbaijan, the presidential election was initially scheduled for October 17, 2018, but in early February, Ilham Aliev rescheduled it for April 11. The Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) registered eight presidential candidates, including incumbent President Ilham Aliev.

"Those in power themselves chose their rivals; this led to a colourless pre-election campaign," said Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, the head of the Institute of Public Policy.

"There was absolutely no election atmosphere – no advertising posters, no agitation concerts, no rallies, and no distribution of booklets. The candidates' campaigning materials could only be found on stands at polling stations," the expert told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, adding that presidential candidates refused from many forms of election campaigning, resorting just to debates on the Public Television.

At the same time, Ilham Aliev enjoyed all the advantages of the incumbent president – TV channels and other media widely covered his everyday activities, Mr Gadjiev has stated.

Akif Gurbanov, the head of the Institute of Democratic Initiatives, has treated the campaign as "dull", noting that the authorities did not even consider it necessary to put forward a new slogan for their campaign.

"Like 15 years ago, members of the ruling party used the same slogan 'Forward with Ilham' and talked about stability. No one has presented a programme on what Azerbaijan could expect in the next seven years. The 'opponents' of the power candidate mainly accused local executive authorities of all the population's problems; while no one dared to criticize the political leadership."

It was such a pre-election campaign that was most beneficial for the authorities, the lawyer believes.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.