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Azerbaijan’s Constitutional Court affirms Ilham Aliyev as president

Aliyev won the vote by a large margin, having garnered, according to the CEC, 92.12% or 4,567,458 votes

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev Alexei Danichev/POOL/TASS

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev

© Alexei Danichev/POOL/TASS

BAKU, February 13. /TASS/. The Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan has officially declared Ilham Aliyev the country’s president for another seven years.

"[I hereby decree] to declare Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev the president-elect of the Republic of Azerbaijan," the court’s decree said, as read out by its president Farhad Abdullayev.

Before the announcement, the Constitutional Court at its plenary session reviewed and approved the protocol of the Central Election Committee (CEC) on the results of the February 7 snap presidential election. Aliyev won the vote by a large margin, having garnered, according to the CEC, 92.12% or 4,567,458 votes. His closest rival, legislator Zahid Oruj, who ran as an independent, took 2.17% of the vote. Overall, more than 4.9 mln voters or 76.43% of eligible voters, went to the polls.

Aliyev is Azerbaijan’s fourth president. He won the election in 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018.

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