BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9
By Samir Ali - Trend:
The observation mission from Pakistan summed up what was seen in the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, Trend reports.
The ex-deputy speaker of the Pakistani Parliament Jahid Abbasi said that the Pakistani delegation feels at home in Baku and was pleased with the election process.
"We are extremely pleased with the organization of the elections and the activities of the Azerbaijani Central Election Commission," Abbasi said.
Director general of the Islamabad Center for Global and Strategic Studies Khalid Taimur Akram emphasized that he observed free, democratic and transparent elections in Azerbaijan.
"We visited Ganja on Feb. 7th, visited the 7th and 13th polling stations, and met with representatives of local election commissions. And on Feb. 8, having arrived in Nakhchivan, we visited the 12th and 3rd polling stations," Taimur Akram 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.