Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Results of voting by US citizens living in Azerbaijan in the presidential elections have been announced, with most of them supporting incumbent President Barack Obama. 289 voters backed Obama, while 91 cast their ballots for his Republican rival Mitt Romney.

The president, elected at the 57th presidential election on Tuesday, will be inaugurated on January 20, 2013.

After winning a re-election President Obama promised his thrilled supporters "that for the United States of America the best is yet to come."

He congratulated his opponent and said, "In the weeks ahead I am looking forward to sitting down with Gov. Romney to discuss how we can move this country forward."

"Tonight, you voted for action not politics as usual," he told supporters in Chicago. "You elected us to focus on your job, not ours."

Prior to the president's speech, Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, conceded gracefully in Boston.

"I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes....but the nation chose another leader," Romney told his supporters at his Boston headquarters.

At the moment, Obama has 303 electoral votes, while Romney has 206. To win a candidate needs to have 270 votes out of 538.

Commenting on Wednesday upon the results of the presidential election, US Ambassador in Baku Richard Morningstar said Azerbaijan will continue to be an extremely important country for the United States.

"I think that certainly with President Barack Obama continuing for the next four years, we will not expect any major changes in the foreign policy. Azerbaijan will continue to be an extremely important country to the United States and we will continue to work with Azerbaijan on all of issues that we have been working on," Morningstar told journalists.

Ali Hasanov, head of social and political affairs at the Presidential Administration, said earlier on Tuesday that Azerbaijan will continue cooperating with the U.S regardless of the results of the presidential election.

"The two countries are strategic partners," Hasanov said. "They cooperate in many areas, in particular, in international peacekeeping operations. Azerbaijan is working with the U.S. in many hot spots, and both countries jointly combat international terrorism."

US elections are held in a "winner takes all" when the candidate with a simple majority of votes in the state takes all the electoral votes from that state. In addition, each state has a certain number of electoral votes equal to the number of representatives in Congress -- two senators from each state, and several congressmen, depending on the number of districts.