Preliminary results show Azerbaijan’s president wins re-election, as expected

By AIDA SULTANOVA
Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Preliminary results of Azerbaijan’s presidential elections show a victory for incumbent Ilham Aliyev, as expected. The head of the country’s Central Election Commission, Mazahir Panahov, says that with over 93% of the ballots counted, Aliyev, 62, was winning the race with 92.05% of the votes. 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. Aliyev has been in power for more than 20 years, and has been expected to secure another seven-year term in office at the election. The vote was initially 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.