Azerbaijan Loyally Votes for Stability

There were no surprises during the referendum in Azerbaijan this week on whether to abolish the limit on the number of times that the country's strongman leader is allowed stand for the presidency. More than 90 per cent of voters loyally decided that it would be a rather good thing for President Ilham Aliyev to have the opportunity to extend his rule long into the future. As one man told me in broken English at a polling station in the capital, Baku: "Our president - good!" There was an opposition boycott, but no street activism or anti-referendum posters, and certainly no public protests. More details from my report for Al Jazeera here.