Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev has received over 90% of the vote to win re-election as the country's president, the electoral commission head confirmed Thursday.
Aliyev has been president of Azerbaijan since 2003, when he took over from his father, Heydar. He remains massively popular and routinely receives over 85% of the vote in elections.
State news agency AZERTAC cited Mazahir Panahov, the electoral commission chairman, as saying that Aliyev had received 92.05% of the vote, with over 93% of the votes counted. Officials said voter turnout Wednesday had been around 76%.
The runner-up, a lawmaker who is loyal to Aliyev, received slightly more than 2%.
Azerbaijan was not due to hold presidential elections until 2025, but Aliyev moved the polls forward after Baku reclaimed control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September.
Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, was occupied by ethnic Armenian forces since a lengthy war in the early 1990s. The occupying forces along with a majority of the population fled after Azerbaijani forces re-established control.
For Azerbaijan, the victory was a triumph that heralded what Aliyev called "a new era" for his country. Armenia, however, labels the defeat as a national tragedy with over 120,000 people reportedly displaced.
