Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday celebrated a landslide poll win to tie up a third term and further prolong his family's vice-like rule, in a vote rubbished by opponents as riddled with violations.

With some 98 percent of the ballots counted, Aliyev had sealed a crushing majority at Wednesday's vote in the ex-Soviet state notching up around 84.6 percent, with main opposition challenger Jamil Hasanli far behind in second place with 5.5 percent, the electoral commission said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday scored a crushing election victory to win a third term and further extend his family's dynastic rule, in polls denounced as fraudulent by the marginalized opposition.

Aliyev secured a widely-predicted landslide in the tightly-controlled ex-Soviet state with almost 85 percent of the vote, with main opposition challenger Jamil Hasanli in distant second place, partial results showed.

Oil-rich Azerbaijan voted in a presidential election Wednesday that looks certain to see strongman Ilham Aliyev seal a third term, with critics claiming a widespread crackdown on his foes ahead of the poll.

Despite refusing to campaign publicly, Aliyev appears a shoo-in as the authorities exert an iron grip over most media in the tightly-controlled ex-Soviet state.

Azerbaijan on Wednesday accused Armenia of resettling Syrian refugees in a disputed territory the two have been fighting over for decades.

Azerbaijan's U.N. ambassador said the rival neighbor had started a "very dangerous process with unpredictable consequences" by moving Syrian Armenians into Nagorny Karabakh.

Azerbaijan on Friday barred a second opposition candidate from challenging strongman president Ilham Aliyev, amid criticism that authorities are ramping up attempts to stifle dissent in the run-up to October elections.

The oil-rich ex-Soviet state's election commission said that a number of signatures supporting the candidacy of Ilgar Mammadov, the head of the Republican Alternative (REAL) opposition movement, were falsified.

Azerbaijan on Tuesday blocked the country's main opposition candidate from challenging strongman president Ilham Aliyev in October elections.

The oil-rich ex-Soviet state's election commission said Oscar-winning screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov had been barred from standing in the autumn polls because of his dual Russian-Azerbaijan citizenship.

Azerbaijani troops shot dead one Armenian soldier and wounded another along the volatile border between the two countries, the defense ministry in Yerevan said on Friday.

Private Norair Petrosyan was killed in the incident on Armenia's south-western border with the autonomous Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, said defense ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovannisyan.

Thousands of Azerbaijani opposition supporters held a rare authorized rally Sunday to demand a free-and-fair presidential election scheduled for October in the tightly controlled ex-Soviet state.

Police detained several activists as some 3,000 supporters of Azerbaijan's main opposition coalition, the National Council of Democratic Forces, waved banners and chanted support for Oscar-winning screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov's bid to unseat strongman president Ilham Aliyev.

Azerbaijan on Friday banned 335 foreign nationals-- including European lawmakers, journalists and academics-- from entering the country over visits they allegedly made to the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh.

The Azerbaijani foreign ministry released a list -- including several deputies from France's National Assembly, a member of the British House of Lords and a Spanish opera singer -- of people declared personae non grata in the oil-rich former Soviet state.

The Azerbaijani parliament on Tuesday approved a prisoner amnesty proposed by the country's glamorous and powerful first lady that will likely see thousands of convicts released.

The move -- put forward by Mehriban Aliyeva, the influential wife of strongman President Ilham Aliyev -- should see some 2,000 prisoners, mainly women, disabled and elderly convicts, released and 7,000 more have their sentences cut, according to the new law.