Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 7 / Trend E. Tariverdiyeva /
The electoral process in Azerbaijan is running in more peaceful atmosphere compared to previous years. This is the right way to democratization, Paul Wille, the head of the PACE observation mission, said.
"I have not heard about serious problems during elections. Azerbaijan is a country that stands on the way to democratization," he said
The Azerbaijani CEC reported that 690 candidates are running for the parliamentary elections.
Azerbaijan has today launched the parliamentary elections at 08:00 local time. It will complete at 7:00 p.m.
Current parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are the second ones after Azerbaijan entered the Council of Europe in 2001. About 1,029 international observers, representing 21 organizations, observe the voting process.
A PACE short-term observation mission, headed by Belgian Paul Wille, consists of 30 people. Members of the mission operate not only in the electoral districts of the capital, but also in Azerbaijani regions. It also includes new PACE co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan Pedro Agramunt and PACE rapporteur on political prisoners Christoph Strasser.
"We have just observed the process. We are not judges, he said. From a technical point of view, the elections, organized by the Central Election Commission, meet international standards.
He said that there is a problem with the registration of candidates. It can be used by the opposition. However, he stressed that the opposition camp has not submitted its program during the pre-election debate.
"They have not provided real proposals to citizens. They have not said anything about their program," he said.
A PACE long-term mission, consisting of 5 people, observed the course of the pre-election campaign October 19-21.
Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are held by the majority system in 125 constituencies. Previous parliamentary elections were held in November 2005.