Azerbaijani presidential election, 2013
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| Turnout | 71.62% | ||||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 9 October 2013. The result was a victory for incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, who received 84.5% of the vote, whilst leading opposition candidate Jamil Hasanli finished second with 5.5% of the vote.
The election was marred by claims of irregularities; official results were accidentally released by the government's Central Election Commission through a mobile app before voting began, giving incumbent Aliyev a victory with 72.38% of the vote. The commission later recalled the results, claiming that they were taken from the 2008 elections. This claim has been disputed, given that the results accidentally released included the candidates from the 2013 elections, and that the percentages differed from the 2008 results.
OSCE monitors reported candidate and voter intimidation and a restrictive media environment, including arrests and the use of force against journalists and activists. 92% of the coverage on the six main TV channels were dedicated to the incumbent president.
All previous elections in Azerbaijan observed by OSCE fell short of meeting international standards.
In 2009 an amendment was made to the Constitution of Azerbaijan, which abolished the limit of two consecutive presidential terms and allowed incumbent Aliyev, who had already served for two terms, to run for president for unlimited number of times. The constitutional amendment was condemned by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, which stated that "the abolition of existing limits preventing the unlimited re-election of a President is a step back, in terms of democratic achievements". The amendment was also criticized by the Azerbaijani opposition. On the basis of the amendment in 2013 Ilham Aliyev ran for president for the third time.
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