The business news agency Zawya reports.

As the two-term Azeri president Ilham Aliyev prepares to run in the October presidential elections, his opponents are looking to field a credible candidate to rid the country of the Aliyevs’ dynastic rule, the business news agency Zawya reports.

The article reads that Aliyev’s family has had an uncomfortable relationship with democracy. His father Hyder, who was once a senior KGB officer, launched a successful coup against Azerbaijan’s only democratically elected leader Abulfaz Elchibey in 1993 to become president.

It is said that after ruling for 10 years, he stepped aside and nominated his son as his party’s sole candidate in 2003. Ilham Aliyev secured majority votes but opposition groups claimed the process was deeply flawed. Aliyev won a second term in 2008 after the opposition boycotted the elections in Azerbaijan.

The author notes, that there are some concerns among the Azeri political elite whether the president should run a third term.

The material also says that the president is looking to change the status quo because for the first time he may be up against a credible opposing candidate: 74-year-old writer Rustom Ibrahimbeyov, who could be acceptable to a number of opposition groups after they came together under the National Council coalition.

The article reads that, Azerbaijan may have prospered, it has received dismal marks from virtually every human rights institution and NGO in the world. Thus, Human Rights Watch says that since March 2012, the Azeri authorities have arrested or convicted at least 22 political activists, journalists, social media bloggers, human-rights defenders, and others who criticized the government.

However as the author of the article says it is unclear whether Azeris are ready for a major change.

As the article reads, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that Azerbaijan has been one of the world’s fastest growing economies in the past decade, yet the country is at a critical juncture given the foreseeable decline in oil production and gas reserves.

Most analysts are predicting oil production to decline within two decades and while natural gas revenues are on the rise, they may not be enough to offset falling oil receipts. The age-old recommendation to diversify away from the hydrocarbon economy has been falling on deaf ears.

The article also says that the focus on natural gas is crucial to maintaining the Azeri economy’s growth trajectory, especially as Aliyev needs a healthy flow of revenues to keep his citizenry content and opposition parties at bay. But the country could face a number of challenges as commodity prices are falling, which is inconvenient for a president fighting for re-election, the author of the material writes.

As the IMF reports, the government’s planned spending program, including in the 2013 budget, is exacerbating oil dependence and increasing risks to a potential fall in global oil prices.