Azernews.Az

President Ilham Aliyev enjoys support of the overwhelming majority of Azerbaijanis ahead of the October elections, a public opinion poll has revealed.
69.7 per cent of respondents in the study, commissioned by the local Rey (Opinion) monitoring center, said they would vote for the incumbent head of state.
56.2 per cent of those polled said they saw no alternative to President Aliyev at the upcoming election.
Asked if they expected the poll to be democratic, 43 per cent of respondents gave an affirmative answer, while 28 per cent said they hoped this would be the case.
In reply to a question as to why the opposition has never been able to unite, 26 per cent of those polled said the opposition camp's efforts are blocked by "personal ambitions", while 35 per cent said there is no real opposition in Azerbaijan and it is merely "a puppet of the foreigners". 12 per cent said the government was "playing a well-thought-out game aiming to neutralize the opposition".
Asked who they would like to see as a single candidate representing the opposition, 10 per cent of those polled spoke in favor of the chairperson of the National Unity Movement Lala Shovkat, while 5 per cent backed Musavat party leader Isa Gambar. The leader of the Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan Etibar Mammadov and the president of the Public Forum for Azerbaijan Eldar Namazov got 4 per cent public support, while 3 per cent of respondents said they backed ex-speaker Rasul Guliyev.
The poll was conducted in 28 residential areas among up to 1,400 people in Baku and Sumgayit.