BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Everything was perfectly prepared for the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, German MP Uli Henkel said at a press conference in Baku, Trend reports Feb. 9.
“Our mission arrived to observe the progress of the parliamentary elections, and I participated in the opening of polling station No. 7 at 7:45 (GMT +4), that is fifteen minutes before the official start of the elections,” the German MP said. “I am very satisfied with what I saw. Everything was in accordance with the rules and we are pleased to announce that everything was perfectly prepared for the elections. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of preparation for the elections.”
Henkel noted that he had never seen so many observers at any elections.
“For me, this means that the state wants maximum transparency, and we can confirm that everything was held in a transparent manner,” the MP summed up.
In turn, another German MP, Ulrich Singer, also confirmed that the elections were held as openly and transparently as possible.
“There were no problems with the ballots,” the MP said.
The parliamentary elections of the sixth convocation were held in Azerbaijan on Feb. 9. Some 1,314 candidates were registered within the early parliamentary elections.
The candidacies of 246 people were nominated by 19 political parties, 1,057 were self-nominated, 11 - by initiative groups. Twenty-one percent accounted for female candidates while 79 percent – male candidates.
Throughout the day, 5,573 permanent polling stations operated in 125 constituencies of the country. There were 5,329,460 registered voters.
Some 883 international observers and 77,790 local observers monitored the voting process. Among the local observers, 35,152 were representatives of political parties. International observers represented 58 countries and 59 organizations.
Exit polls were conducted by AJF & Associates Inc. (US) jointly with Citizens' Labor Rights Protection League, the Rey Monitoring Center, and the French OpinionWay Research Institute together with the “Human Rights in the XXI Century – Azerbaijan” Foundation.