The Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan announced that Ilham Aliyev won the presidency according to preliminary results (Anatolia)

Ilham Aliyev was re-elected as President of Azerbaijan for a fifth term of 7 years, according to preliminary results of vote counting yesterday evening, Wednesday, in an expected result of the early elections that came months after Baku’s victory in a lightning attack on Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The official reason that prompted Aliyev (62 years old) to advance the date of the elections, which were scheduled to be held in 2025, was to restore Azerbaijan’s entire territory and territorial sovereignty.

The head of the Central Election Commission in Azerbaijan, Mazhar Benahov, announced on Wednesday evening that the current president, Ilham Aliyev, won the presidential elections with 92.1% of the votes, according to preliminary, non-final results.

Benahof explained, in a press conference, that 4 million and 971 thousand voters voted in the presidential elections, with a participation rate of 76.73%.

Independent candidate Zahid Oruc came second with 2.2% of the votes, then the head of the Grand Establishment Party, Fazil Mustafa, with 1.99%, followed by the head of the All-Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, Qadrat Hasan Guliyev, with 1.78%. The head of the National Front Party, Radi Nurulayev, came fifth with 0.79%, the head of the Greater Azerbaijan Party, Elshad Musayev, with 0.66%, and finally the independent candidate Fuad Aliyev, with 0.48%.

On Wednesday morning, voting began in the early presidential elections to choose a new president for the oil-rich South Caucasus republic overlooking the Caspian Sea, with 7 candidates competing, most notably the current president, Ilham Aliyev.

In the center of the capital, Baku, long lines of voters lined up, at times, in front of polling stations to cast their votes in Wednesday's elections.

It should be noted that Ilham Aliyev assumed the presidency, succeeding his father, Heydar Aliyev, in 2003, and has since been re-elected.

Source: Agencies