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Today the people of Azerbaijan are voting in an election in which the incumbent President, Ilham Aliyev, is expected to win a third term in office, the BBC writes in an article and notes that the president has not even run an election campaign.

“He has stifled dissent and pushed through a constitutional referendum scrapping presidential term limits. Human rights groups say in the run-up to the elections the government has launched an unprecedented crackdown on its critics,” the material says. According to BBC the pre-election atmosphere has been characterized by a combination of apathy and fear.

German editorial Deutsche Welle notes that according to the critics though the elections in Azerbaijan to be held on October 9 will not be free and fair, the West will largely refrain from criticizing the Azerbaijani government, as far as the “Brussels and Baku relations are based on energy.” Regional experts like Uwe Halbach from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), however, stated that “in the media, the president predominates and there is bullying of the opposition and limitations put on freedom of assembly.”

According to voice of America unexpected situations can hardly occur in Azerbaijan during the presidential elections. “An Aliyev - either father, Haydar, or son, Ilham - has ruled Azerbaijan for 32 of the last 44 years,” the article reads.

According to the source, Ilham Aliyev has steadily increased his share of the vote during his decade as Azerbaijan's president. “In 2003, he received 76 percent of votes cast. In 2008, he received 87 percent. In the last parliamentary election, his supporters took all the seats,” the Voice of America writes.

Yesterday The Guardian published the article of the Azerbaijani opposition leader Jamil Hasanli, where the latter states that “since the incumbent, Ilham Aliyev, inherited power from his late father 10 years ago, Azerbaijan has become mired in rampant corruption, and the ruling regime has grown ever more authoritarian and ruthless.”

“Aliyev has never won a free and fair election and knows he cannot win this one. Elections and referendums in Azerbaijan have been marked by widespread electoral fraud and vote-rigging. Having taken control of all electoral commissions in the country, the Aliyev regime has now intensified its ongoing crackdown against independent media, the opposition and civil society, prompting condemnation and statements of concern from international human rights organisations and the EU,” Hasanli says in his article and calls Nagorno Karabakh “a disputed region.”

The international Civic Solidarity Platform published an article titled “Five things Aliyev doesn’t want you to know about Azerbaijan’s presidential election.” The material notes that the human rights situation in Azerbaijan is worse than ever before. According to the article there are 142 people locked up for political reasons in Azerbaijan. Secondly, Aliyev has gotten far greater media coverage in the country than any of his opponents. Thirdly, the opposition is challenging Aliyev’s right to run for a third term. Fourthly, the authors of the article note, that Azerbaijan has not had a fair and free election since Aliyev came to power. It adds at the end that Azerbaijan is failing to fulfill its human rights obligations with all major international bodies.