Preliminary results of Azerbaijan’s presidential elections on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, showed a landslide victory for president Ilham Aliyev, whose re-election was widely expected following his government’s swift reclaiming of a region formerly controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists. With just over 93% of the ballots counted, Aliyev was winning the race with 92.05% of the votes, the head of the country’s Central Election Commission, Mazahir Panahov, reported in the early hours of Thursday, February 8.
None of the other candidates on the ballot so far has won more than 3%, with the runner-up getting just 2.19% of the votes, according to Panahov. Three of them have already conceded and congratulated Aliyev on his winning re-election, the Interfax Azerbaijan news agency reported.
Aliyev, 62, has been in power for more than 20 years, succeeding his father who was Azerbaijan's Communist boss and then president for a decade when it became independent after the 1991 Soviet collapse. The next presidential vote was set for next year, but Aliyev called an early election shortly after Azerbaijani troops retook the Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian forces who controlled it for three decades.
Analysts suggested Aliyev moved the election forward to capitalize on his burst in popularity following September's blitz in Karabakh. He will be in the limelight in November when Azerbaijan, a country that relies heavily on revenues from fossil fuels, hosts a U.N. climate change conference.
Turnout was strong, with election officials saying that over 76% of eligible voters cast ballots during the 11-hour voting.
Aliyev has declared that he wanted the election to "mark the beginning of a new era," in which Azerbaijan has full control over its territory. On Wednesday, he and his family cast their ballots in Khankendi, a city that was called Stepanakert by Armenians when it housed the headquarters of the self-declared separatist government. The region, which had been known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, and large swathes of surrounding territory came under full control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia at the end of a separatist war in 1994.