Early presidential election in Azerbaijan comes to an end

EXCLUSIVE

The presidential elections in Azerbaijan are over. The polling stations have closed, correspondents of Vestnik Kavkaza report. The counting of votes has begun.

This election became historic for Azerbaijan. For the first time in history, voting took place throughout the country's internationally recognized territory, including the liberated territories, where 26 polling stations were set up. They worked in Lachin, Shusha, Fuzuli and Agali.

President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, and members of their family also voted in the deoccupied lands. They voted in Khankendi.

Turnout
Polling stations opened at 8:00 local time (07:00 Moscow time). By 10:00 am (09:00 Moscow time), the turnout almost reached 20%. Lines of people wishing to cast their votes gathered inside and outside the polling stations, including on the street in front of them. Thus, the final turnout figures will be a record for Azerbaijan.

At 17.00, that is, two hours before the end of voting, the turnout was already 70.85%. According to the Head of the Information Center of the Secretariat of the Central Election Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic, Farid Orujov, a total of 4,590,075 voters had voted by this time. It was previously reported that there were 6,478,623 people on the electoral lists.

Candidates
There were 7 candidates on the ballot:

candidate from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party Ilham Aliyev (current head of state); self-nominated candidate Zahid Oruj; self-nominated Fuad Aliyev; Razi Nurullayev (National Front Party); Fazil Mustafa ("Great Order Party"); Gudrat Hasanguliyev ("United Popular Front of Azerbaijan"); Elshad Musayev ("Great Azerbaijan").

Voting abroad
Those citizens of Azerbaijan who were not in their home country today could vote at embassies and consulates.

49 polling stations were set up in 37 countries around the world. Over 23 thousand voters could take part in the elections there.

Observation
The election process was monitored by observers, including from other countries and international organizations. In total, over 90,000 observers were registered to observe the elections.