BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 1. The headquarters of Italian research company SWG S.p.A. is actively working on conducting an exit poll at the parliamentary election in Azerbaijan, the coordinator of the headquarters, Lyaman Babayeva, told Trend.
“Exit-poll involves polling of voters who have already voted and are leaving the polling station. For this purpose, two interviewers are stationed at the exit polling station, and according to a predetermined protocol (based on the number of voters at that polling station and the projected turnout), they select, for example, every fourth, fifth, or seventh voter. They invite that person to vote again.
The voter is given a questionnaire that contains the names of the candidates running for election in the district, as well as the voter's demographics, such as age and employment. The voter fills out the questionnaire on their own, without the interviewer's assistance, then folds it up and drops it into a transparent ballot box. The interviewers then thank him for his participation. Three times a day - at twelve, three, and six o'clock - the ballot box is opened and the collected questionnaires are extracted for analysis. The votes cast for each candidate are counted and summarized.
Here in the headquarters, as you can see, there are telephonists and computer operators. The telephonists contact the precincts and receive data from them, which is then entered into a computer program. This program collects and analyzes the entire database, and after seven o'clock in the evening, when we get the right to publish the results, they will be made public,” she said.
On June 28, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree dissolving the sixth convocation of the Azerbaijani Parliament and scheduling the extraordinary election for September 1.
Azerbaijan has 6,421,960 registered voters, including 374 who turned 18 on the election day. There are 6,478 polling stations, comprising 6,343 permanent and 135 temporary locations.
In the territories liberated from occupation, 54 permanent polling stations are set up. There are 10 electoral districts for internally displaced persons (IDPs), with 574 IDP polling stations serving 397,862 voters. More than 42,000 voters will cast their ballots in the liberated areas.
A total of 51,141 voters will participate for the first time in the extraordinary parliamentary election. The oldest female voter is 134 years old, and the oldest voter is 109 years old.
Exit polls will be conducted at approximately 2,500 polling stations. Three international organizations are registered to carry out these polls: the Citizens' Labor Rights Protection League, together with Oracle Advisory Group (US), and the "Tereggi" Public Association for Social Research, in collaboration with the Italian SWG S.p.A. research company.
A total of 112,749 local observers have been registered, including over 65,000 representatives of political parties. There are 598 international observers from 51 organizations and 69 countries, including 227 from OSCE/ODIHR and 61 from OSCE PA.
Among the 990 registered candidates, 305 represent 25 political parties, while 371 are party members but were not nominated by their parties. In total, 676 candidates are affiliated with political parties.
Webcams have been installed at 1,000 polling stations nationwide to allow direct and continuous observation of the voting process without requiring registration.
Portable ballot boxes will be used across all polling stations for the parliamentary election on September 1.
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