BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 1. The election to the Azerbaijani Parliament passes in conditions of good, healthy competition, representative of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (IPA), senator of the Belarusian Parliament Dmitry Zhuk said, Trend reports.
“As an observer, I was pleasantly surprised by the large number of candidates - there are more than 900 people for 125 seats in the Azerbaijani Parliament. This is a very good competition. Equal conditions were created for all candidates, which is very important in terms of international norms and election fairness. I hope that the parliament in Azerbaijan will be formed and will be capable,” he said.
According to Zhuk, the election is very organized, and all polling stations have everything necessary for people to calmly vote and make their choice.
“The fact that the election was extraordinary and it took a couple of months to prepare them has in no way affected the political tension in the country; people took it calmly. Today the voting process is also going on calmly; without excesses, there is no pressure on anyone,” Zhuk emphasized.
Touching upon the process of preparation for the election, he noted that during the meetings on August 30-31 in the Constitutional Court, in the CEC, the observers were informed in great detail about the preparatory stage of the election to the Azerbaijani Parliament, which was important to hear.
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.
Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel