Azerbaijan ruling party wins polls, opposition cries fraud

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling party celebrated Monday a win in parliamentary polls but the opposition claimed the election was “totally falsified”.

Faced with public discontent over a slowing economy, Aliyev, 58, hoped to boost the government’s image by holding early elections and replacing discredited old elites with younger technocrats.

Counting showed the Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party with 65 seats in the 125-member parliament, after 87 percent of electoral precincts declared results in the first-past-the-post ballot, said central election commission chief Mazahir Panahov.