Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday called an early presidential election for Feb. 7.
The polls come amid massive support for Aliyev after Azerbaijan's victory and recapture of the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Aliyev, 61, was last re-elected in 2018 for a seven-year term, with a declared 86% of the votes.
He is almost certain to win a new term as head of the oil-rich state on the Caspian Sea which maintains close ties with Russia, Türkiye and the West.
In September he ordered a lightning offensive, after a nine-month blockade, to take full control of Nagorno-Karabakh from the ethnic Armenian occupiers of over three decades.
It was Baku's second victory over ethnic Armenian-controlled territory in three years, and finally overturned the historical wrong of Karabakh's de facto secession in a bloody ethnic conflict that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijan has established a solid alliance with Türkiye while also managing working relationships with both Russia and the West.
