Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 9 / Trend E. Mehdiyev /
The preparation for presidential election held at a high level in Azerbaijan, head of the observation mission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Habib Kaabachi told the media today.
"We have already visited several polling stations," he said. "I can say on the basis of the observations that the elections have been organized at a high level."
According to Kaabachi, this testifies to democracy and good governance.
Head of the OIC mission also said that they are observing very high youth voter turnout.
The presidential election voting started in Azerbaijan on Wednesday. Country's polling stations opened at 8:00 am and will close at 7:00 pm (local time).
Ten candidates are taking part in the elections including the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the chairman of Umid Party Igbal Aghazadeh, self-nominated candidate MP Zahid Oruj, the chairman of the United Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (UAPFP) MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev, the chairman of the Modern Musavat Party Hafiz Hajiyev, the chairman of the Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party (ASDP) Araz Alizadeh, the chairman of the National Revival Movement Party, MP Faraj Guliyev, the candidate nominated by the initiative group of voters of the 'National Council of Democratic Forces', Jamil Hasanli, the chairman of the Adalat Party, MP Ilyas Ismayilov and the chairman of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) Sardar Jalaloglu.
The Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan has registered 5,145,643 voters.
In connection with the presidential elections, the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan established 5,273 permanent and 219 temporary polling stations.
Web cameras have been installed in 1000 polling stations in 119 constituencies of Azerbaijan. Unlike in previous years, this time the voting process can be monitored via mobile devices such as smartphones.
Totally, 52,000 people are observing the election in Azerbaijan, nearly 1,400 of which are international observers.
Also, the presidential election is being covered by over 70 representatives from over 20 international media outlets.