Early presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on February 7.
According to the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the current head of state I.G. Aliyev won a convincing victory, for whom 92.12% of voters voted with a turnout of 76.73%. A total of 6,537 polling stations were opened in the country for 6.5 million voters.
President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin warmly congratulated I.G. Aliyev during a telephone conversation and sent a congratulatory telegram. It noted that the results of the vote fully confirmed the popular support for the course pursued by the President of Azerbaijan to accelerate the socio-economic development of the state and strengthen its position on the world stage.
The elections in Azerbaijan were monitored by 790 international observers. The Russian Federation has sent 148 representatives, including through the Federal Assembly, the Executive Committee and the IPA of the CIS, the SCO, and the OSCE/ODIHR.
Secretary General of the CIS S.N.Lebedev stressed that the elections corresponded to the principles of democratic expression of will, and there was a large voter turnout. According to Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs G.B.Karasin, the voting took place on a competitive alternative basis and in a favorable atmosphere. SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming pointed to the openness and transparency of the elections.
Against this background, the assessments from the Western countries and the international structures controlled by them looked extremely biased, which, as we saw, were initially extremely biased towards the presidential elections in Azerbaijan and worked out pre-approved manuals on discrediting the electoral process.
The Russian side welcomes the successful holding of elections in Azerbaijan and is determined to further strengthen the alliance and strategic partnership with the Republic of Azerbaijan, actively work together on international and regional issues, including the implementation of the entire set of trilateral agreements at the highest level on the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
