1992 Azerbaijani presidential election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 7 June 1992.[1] The elections were the first in Azerbaijan in more than seventy years not held under communist control and featured the unprecedented use of television, posters, and other media by multiple candidates to communicate platforms and solicit votes.[2]
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The candidates included Azerbaijani Popular Front Party leader Abulfaz Elchibey, former parliament speaker Yaqub Mamedov, Movement for Democratic Reforms leader and Minister of Justice Ilyas Ismayilov, National Democratic Group leader Rafig Abdullayev, and Union of Democratic Intelligentsia candidate Nizami Suleymanov.[2] Two other candidates, from the Azerbaijan National Independence Party and the Popular Front Party, withdrew from the race during the campaign.[2] Elchibey received 61% of more than three million votes cast. The runner-up, Nizami Suleymanov, made a surprise showing of 34% of the vote by promising Azerbaijanis instant wealth and victory in Nagorno-Karabakh. No other candidate received more than five per cent of the vote.[2]
The election of Elchibey, a Soviet dissident who had been imprisoned by the KGB in the 1970s, signaled a break in Communist Party dominance of Azerbaijani politics.[3] The elections have since been described as the only competitive election in Azerbaijan's post-Soviet history.[3]