Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev won almost 90 percent of the vote to secure another five-year term in the oil-rich Caspian state in an election boycotted by the only real opposition, the country’s central election committee said.
Aliyev, 46, son of the post-Soviet state’s former strong-arm ruler, grabbed 89.04 percent of the ballots, Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency quoted the commission as saying late on Wednesday after about 70 percent of the vote had been counted.
Authorities said there had been a high turnout of 75.65 percent, despite reports by European election monitors of widespread apathy among the country’s 4.8 million voters.
PHOTO: EPA
OBSERVERS
A thousand international observers were watching the vote on Wednesday, including nearly 400 from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which was to publish its assessment yesterday.
In a first reaction after the polls closed, the observers said there had been no initial reports about grave problems. The country’s main opposition parties decried the elections as a farce and criticized systematic discrimination.
The six contestants joining Aliyev on Wednesday’s ballot were seen as mere place cards after the only opposition candidates who could have provided a ghost of a challenge boycotted the vote.
INTRIGUE
The only intrigue as the Central Asian nation voted on Wednesday was how Aliyev would keep up his balancing act between Moscow and Washington as both increase their jostling over Azerbaijan’s energy resources after Russia’s war with Georgia in August.
Azerbaijan is key to Washington’s policy of securing Caspian Sea oil and gas through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, bypassing Russia.
Azerbaijan’s oil riches have yielded one of the world’s fastest- growing economies, with Aliyev reaping praise for infrastructure projects amid an astounding growth rate of more than 34 percent in 2006, the latest year from which statistics were available.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number