BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 10
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
The elections to the Azerbaijani Parliament were held successfully and in accordance with the law, Ukrainian observer Khristina Khomik said at a press conference in Baku, Trend reports.
According to her, the early parliamentary elections of Feb. 9 were held at a high level.
"This is not the first time that I observe elections, including parliamentary ones. In my opinion, Azerbaijan was well prepared for this process," Khistina Khomik said.
Khristina Khomik visited several polling stations in Sumgayit and Baku as an international observer from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9.
"First of all, I'd mention the security measures taken during the election process. A sufficient number of surveillance cameras were installed, at each polling station there were both international and local observers," the Ukrainian observer 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.
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.