Presidential elections in Azerbaijan have ended. There were no surprises: the winner was the incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, who received more than 92% of the votes in the snap presidential elections with a record voter turnout, according to the article published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG.ru), Report informs.
According to the newspaper, there is an unprecedented consensus in Azerbaijani society: "People are convinced that now the country should be more intensively engaged in the development of the economy, as well as in the strengthening of relations with friendly countries."
Thus, there were also interesting innovations in the presidential elections held on February 7: "For example, in order to eliminate the possibility of illegal re-voting, each voter's thumb was scanned at the entrance to the polling stations, and their biometric data was entered into a special database. Therefore, it was impossible to re-enter any polling station and vote a second time."
Farid Shafiyev, Chairman of the Center of Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center), said in a statement to the Rossiyskaya Gazeta that Azerbaijan's cooperation with Russia will expand further: "First of all, we are talking about humanitarian cooperation... We hope for the comprehensive strengthening of our relations in the fields of education and culture. There is no doubt that this will benefit our states."