Baku, February 9. AZERTAC President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan made history by securing yet another mandate from his people to serve the country. Aliyev, 62, was first elected President in 2003 after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev and in Wednesday’s presidential elections, people voted overwhelmingly in his favour giving him another term of seven years, according to Pakobserver.net.Electoral victory for President Ilham Aliyev was a foregone conclusion given his immense popularity because of the services he rendered for the country and people during the last two decades. It was because of his unchallenged position that the President announced snap elections, which were originally due in October 2025 and the results of the polling showed his trust in his people was not misplaced. The popularity of the President received a boost when Azerbaijan was able to reclaim Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian occupation. For Azerbaijan, restoration of control over Karabakh marked a triumphant end to 30 years of intermittent war and a chance for hundreds of thousands of internal refugees to return home. It was for the first time that elections were held at the same time throughout the country including territories liberated from Armenian occupation. According to head of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) observer mission and CIS Secretary General Sergei Lebedev, the turnout of voters was fairly high in the snap elections, which was reflective of keen interest of the people in the political process and their enthusiasm to vote for the incumbent President. The elections are widely acknowledged as fair and transparent and this was also evident from the fact that a total of 90,372 observers were registered to monitor the election, with 790 of them representing 72 international organizations from 89 countries. The landslide victory of President Ilham is understandable as under his leadership Azerbaijan scaled new heights of socio-economic progress. He pursued the path of modernization in all spheres of life and the transformation encompassed a wide range of initiatives, from building new transportation corridors to engaging displaced populations in liberated territories and enhancing human capital. The country has oil resources but the President took a series of measures for diversification of the economy and in this connection special focus is laid on information technology, transport and logistics infrastructure and modernization of the agriculture sector. The policies of the President led to the improvement of the quality of life of Azeri people and this is one of the major factors contributing to his enviable popularity.