Forward with Ilham!

The U.S. isn't the only country holding presidential elections this fall. Azeris went to the polls today to elect a new president. Well... that isn't exactly true. Today some Azeris went to the polls to vote in a presidential election. The main candidate and predicted winner is the incumbent, current President Ilham Aliyev. The question of the day has been not who would win the election, but how many people would actually go out and vote.

Why has everyone been so sure that Ilham would win? Certainly, it's not his snappy campaign slogan, "Forward with Ilham." There are several reasons. First, the president is actually quite popular here. Azerbaijan's economy is growing at a whopping 25% per year, thanks to its growing oil exports, and the government has recently raised pensions and government salaries nine-fold. There has also been huge investment in infrastructure (schools, roads, hospitals) that has pleased many Azeris. Additionally, the "main" opposition parties have boycotted this election. There are 6 other candidates, in addition to the president, but none of them are considered to be major political players and none seem to have staged anything resembling a campaign. Finally, the government has undoubtedly skewed things in its favors. There has been an effort to shorten the campaign period (campaigning only started a month ago) and new restrictions on candidates, so that they can only post their posters in official places (such as the bulletin board shown here) and inside of buildings.

Polls just closed a few minutes ago and the city has been a little rowdier than usual this evening. A pro-government victory parade just went by our window and there has been quite a bit of car honking. But no major surprises are expected this evening.