Azerbaijan elects a president on Wednesday in what human rights organisations say is a stifling atmosphere of intimidation.
Ilham Aliyev, who has run the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic since he succeeded his father 10 years ago, is standing for a third term.
During his presidency, allegations of high-level corruption, the subversion of democracy and the stifling of dissent have been rife, with reports of politically motivated arrests shooting up drastically in the last two years.
The pre-election period has, nonetheless, been a relatively calm one.
But it is “post-election disorder” that worries the authorities, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a recent report, BBC informs.
