UPDATE - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cruises to reelection

ADDS INFORMATION ABOUT RESULTS OF OTHER CANDIDATES

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev easily cruised to a reelection victory in this week’s early presidential polls, winning 92.1% of the vote with all the ballots counted, the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) officially announced on Friday.

The Wednesday vote was historic, as it marked the first time it was held on the entire territory of the southern Caucasus country, including the Karabakh region, which was liberated in 2020-2023 from some 30 years of Armenian occupation.

The liberation of Karabakh led to a huge spike of Aliyev's popularity in Azerbaijan.

Independent candidate Zahid Oruj, Aliyev's closest rival, trailed with 2.17% of the vote, while five others got less than 2% each.

All the other contenders congratulated Aliyev on his victory and said that they have no reason to dispute the outcome.

According to the election commission, almost 4.6 million people cast ballots, with a turnout of over 76.7%.

More than 6,500 polling stations, including abroad, worked from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time (0400-1500GMT).

About 800 foreign and 90,000 local observers from various international organizations and countries, as well as the local press, and about 200 foreign journalists were monitoring the elections.

Aliyev has been Azerbaijan's president since 2003.