Ilham Aliyev to run for presidency in Azerbaijan for the fourth time

‘Azerbaijan’s incumbent President, Ilham Aliyev, has been nominated as the Yeni ruling party’s candidate for the October 2018 presidential election’, reported Ali Ahmedov, the ruling party’s executive secretary and the vice-premier at a meeting with the party’s young activists on Youth Day.

Ahmedov expressed hope that the party’s youth wing would also contribute to Aliyev’s victory.

Under the Azerbaijani Electoral Code, the presidential candidate registration procedure will start 60 days before election day, which falls on 17 October this year.

Last week the Musavat opposition party voiced its intention to nominate Isa Qambar, the party ex-chairman, as its presidential candidate.

There was little doubt that Alyev would run for a fourth term, though there was some speculation that the country’s first lady and vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva might be nominated as the ruling party’s candidate in the upcoming presidential election. However, neither Mehriban Aliyeva nor the ruling party officials commented on those speculations. It is noteworthy that after the 2016 constitutional reforms Ilham Aliyev can transfer powers to the first vice-president at any time.

• Ilham Aliyev, 57, has been nominated for the presidency for the fourth time. He became Acting President of Azerbaijan in August 2003 after his father, Heydar Aliyev, took ill.
• At the 2009 constitutional referendum Azerbaijan abolished a restriction barring one person from serving more than two consecutive presidential terms.
• As a result of the 2016 constitutional referendum, the president’s term in office was extended  from five to seven years. Thus, if Ilham Aliyev wins the election he will stay in power in Azerbaijan until at least 2025.