Corrupt Politics in Azerbaijan

     The country of Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. While Azerbaijan's economic future has been described as "promising", they continue to have extractive political institutions. The country recently re-elected President Ilham Aliyev, who has been serving for the past 10 years. The problem is the results announcing his re-election were reveal a full day before voting had even began. The country's facade of free elections was essentially broken with this incident. The election was not anticipated to be fair, but this incident just further confirmed the extent of authoritarian power in Azerbaijan.

     The extractive political power in Azerbaijan means that even though people are technically allowed to vote, their vote does not actually have any affect on the outcome of the election. The opposing candidate's appeals were rejected, further stifling opposition to the ruling powers.