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Snouts in the oil-rich trough
Politicians of all parties are enjoying the junkets laid on by the autocratic Azerbaijani regime, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

The Azerbaijani electoral commission announced the results of this month's presidential election before voting even began and it achieved this remarkable feat by releasing the voteless numbers on its official phone app.

It tried claiming that by mistake these were from the last election but they showed figures for this year's candidates and closely matched the official figures released post-election. The vote-free poll results from Azerbaijan showed that this year's candidate, Azerbaijan's autocratic ruler Ilham Aliyev, won by over 70 per cent. Just as he has for the past decade and his father did before him. Oops. What could be more embarrassing?

How about "hundreds" of Liberal, Labour and Tory MPs having a great big party to celebrate the country which has elections without votes?

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