BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 7. Azerbaijan's voting stations demonstrate a high level of responsibility, member of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Alexander Bashkin told Trend.
"Today, I witnessed what thousands, tens, and even hundreds of thousands of other election participants have experienced. There was great excitement, extraordinary enthusiasm, and a strong sense of responsibility for the occasion. For the first time in three decades, elections are being held over all of Azerbaijan's territory, including territories recently reclaimed from Armenian occupation," said Bashkin.
"This, of course, could not fail to impress the Azerbaijani voters, and this, of course, could not fail to give the generally routine, quite legally ordinary election process a festive atmosphere, a sense of great celebration and uplift, a spiritual uplift. This is the first thing. The second is the high level of friendliness and warm and joyful emotions towards us, the international observers from the Russian Federation. This speaks of very warm, very close, very trusting relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, between the Russian and Azerbaijani peoples," added the member of the committee.
"As Russians, we are delighted to see that the Azerbaijani people had ample opportunity today to make their choices openly, transparently, honestly, and fairly, expressing their views on the future development of their country," he said.
Voting for the presidential election in Azerbaijan has kicked off.
Polling stations have already been opened for voters starting at 8:00 (GMT+4), Mazahir Panahov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), said.
The CEC Secretariat's Information Center will provide preliminary updates on the voting progress and results at 19:00.
The crucial cutoff for candidate registration came on January 9, with seven contenders now in the race for the presidential seat.
With a total of 6,478,623 people on the voter list, voting will take place at 6,537 polling sites across the country. Over 90,000 observers have enrolled to oversee the election.
The election is taking place across the entire territory of Azerbaijan, including recently liberated territories. In these liberated territories, 26 polling stations have been constructed.
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