Head of PABSEC mission: Azerbaijan a democratic country where democratic elections are being held today

Azerbaijan , Baku , October 9/ Trend H.Valiyev , E. Aliyev /

Azerbaijan is a democratic country, and today democratic elections are held there, the head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), the head of the BSEC observation group for the presidential election in Azerbaijan Ismail Safi told Trend on Wednesday.

Safi noted that him and his colleagues represent here today only four countries out of the twelve members of the BSEC.

"I believe that Azerbaijan will hold fair, transparent and democratic elections today," Safi said.

According to him, Turkey has always been close to the brotherly Azerbaijani state,and will be in the future.

"I often visit Azerbaijan and with each next visit I see something new. Such large positive changes cause a sense of pride in the brotherly country. Generally, among the Turkish and Azerbaijani peoples special relationships have been established. Azerbaijani people are very friendly. Azerbaijan has become a very serious player in the region, neighboring countries and the international arena. Turkey has repeatedly been alone in its position on the international arena, but now Azerbaijan supports us and is with us. We are proud to have a strong , reliable brotherly state with a stable energy supply, " Safi said.

Both countries have come a long way of development in the last ten years, and most importantly, this development has been stable from economic and political points of view, both in Turkey and in Azerbaijan, he noted.
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 will take 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 observe the election in Azerbaijan, nearly 1,400 of which are international observers.

Also, the presidential election are being covered by over 70 representatives from over 20 international media outlets.