Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.30 / Trend, M.Aliyev /
By 10:00am today, the voting turnout in the repeated, additional and new municipal elections in Azerbaijan hit 6.89 per cent amounting to 79,639 voters, the director of the Information Centre at the Azerbaijani Central Elections Commission Ramil Huseynov told Trend. That is only two hours after the polling stations opened.
There are 1549 candidates standing for 464 vacant seats registered in 330 municipalities. That's approximately four candidates for each vacant seat.
The generic candidate breakdown is that 305 are female (19.69 per cent). 673 (43.45 per cent) have higher education qualifications, 605 (39.06 per cent) - secondary education, 265 (17.11 per cent) - secondary special education and six (0.38 per cent) have not completed a higher education course.
Candidates from nine political parties, namely Yeni Azerbaijan Party, Ana Veten Party, Social Prosperity Party, Civil Solidarity Party, Popular Front of Integrated Azerbaijan, Great Creation Parties, Democratic Reforms Party, and Civil Unity Party are running for the elections. At least 709 candidates are not affiliated to any party.
About 9923 people were registered as observers. About 1,155,864 voters will be able to take part in the elections.
The CEC will provide information updates regarding the voting process at 12:00, 15:00, 17:00 and 19:00.