UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS AND CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES
By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received over 93% of the vote in early presidential election on Wednesday, according to exit polls.
Aliyev secured 93.9% of the vote, US-based Oracle Advisory Group's representative George Brinbaum told a news briefing in the capital Baku after voting concluded at 7 p.m. local time (1500GMT).
Aliyev's closest competitor, independent candidate Zahid Oruj, received a mere 1.8%.
Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission later declared that 4.97 million people participated in the election, which means a 76.73% voter turnout. About 6.5 million citizens were eligible to vote, including those based abroad.
The presidents of Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Iraq and Serbia, as well as Hungary's prime minister, congratulated Aliyev on his victory.
The last presidential election, which is held every seven years in Azerbaijan, was on April 11, 2018. A decree signed by Aliyev late last year moved the vote forward from its initial date of October 2025.