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There are 18 countries in the world that, by their constitutions are regarded as republican countries, but are rather conducted as controlled monarchies. Azerbaijan, according to an article published on the website of the Azerbaijani Service of “Radio Liberty”, is including among them.

It is noted that the two presidents "go to polls for at least three times, and are announced winners." "Among the former Soviet republics along with the President of Azerbaijan the presidents of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus are included in the list," the article states.

The author reminds that in Azerbaijan the Constitution prohibits one person to run the presidency for more than two consecutive terms. However, the referendum passed in 2009 abolished this restriction.

Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Cameroon, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Sudan, etc., are included in the list of 18 republics that substantially resemble monarchies.

On 9 October presidential elections took place in Azerbaijan in which the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev won the elections with almost 85% of the vote, thereby taking the post for the third time. The head of National Council of Democratic Forces Jamil Hasanli was second after Aliyev with 5.5% of vote. The opposition declared that it wouldn’t accept the election results because the elections were totally violated by ballot-box staffing, “carousel” etc. OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, U.S Department of State, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Britain and European Parliament called the elections undemocratic and inconsistent with OSCE standards.