Mancham among observer missions at Azerbaijan presidential polls |10 October 2013

Seychelles’ founding President James R. Mancham yesterday led one of the nine groups of international monitors to observe the presidential election in progress in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Mr Mancham forms part of an impressive delegation from the CAPDI (Centrist Asian Democratic Parties International) of which he is the vice-president.

On Tuesday the monitors met at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baku with the representative of President Ilham Aliyev of New Azerbaijan Party which has been the ruling party for 10 years and is making a bid for another five years.
It is to be noted that Azerbaijan is a wealthy nation with the discovery of vast amount of oil and gas.
 
President Ilham Aliyev was recently credited “Man of the Year” by Business News Asia magazine for his vision and leadership in reducing poverty and for his policy to double the GDP of his nation by 2020.

The monitors also met the president candidate of the Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, the presidential candidate of the Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party and Zahid Oruc, a presidential candidate nominated on his own initiative.
 
For nearly two months the life of the Azerbaijan nation has been dominated by debate concerning the election and according the polls, President Aliyev is forecast to win another five-year-term.
 With the political turmoil in many nations surrounding the Caspian region, public opinion appears to tend to the view that “the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t know”, particularly as the charismatic President Aliyev remains an engaging and popular leader with an impressive track record of achievements which include making Baku one of the most modern capitals of the world today.