President Ilham Aliev, 63, who took over as head of the former Soviet republic in 2003, would have been re-elected with more than 90% of the vote, according to provisional results. The election should have been held in the spring of 2025, but at the beginning of December, President Aliev announced this early election.
The opposition boycotted this presidential election, judging that it did not have time to prepare for it after the announcement in early December of an early vote.