2003 Azerbaijani presidential election

2003 Azerbaijani presidential election

← 1998 15 October 2003 2008 →
 
Nominee Ilham Aliyev Isa Gambar
Party New Azerbaijan Musavat
Popular vote 1,860,346 338,145
Percentage 76.84% 13.97%

President before election

Heydar Aliyev
New Azerbaijan

Elected President

Ilham Aliyev
New Azerbaijan

Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 15 October 2003. As expected, Ilham Aliyev, son of the outgoing president, Heydar Aliyev, was officially elected with an overwhelming majority in a vote international observers deemed not to be free or fair.[1][2]

The election was characterized by ballot stuffing and manipulated voter lists. The final vote tabulation was kept from OSCE/ODIHR monitors, which meant that they could not judge the accuracy of the results.[3] Police arrested members of electoral commissions who refused to sign paperwork on vote counts from their precincts.[3] The opposition claimed that Gambar had won the election.[3] The opposition protested against the election results, with the Aliyev regime arresting hundreds, including Gambar.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference HRW_AZ_pres_elec2003_full_pdf was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference IDEE_AZ_preselec2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Altstadt, Audrey L. (2017). Frustrated Democracy in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan. Columbia University Press. p. 77. doi:10.7312/alts70456. ISBN 978-0-231-70456-4.
  4. ^ Hale, Henry E. (2014). Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 294. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139683524. ISBN 978-1-107-07351-7.