Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.23
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
The voter turnout in the municipal election hit 32.44 percent in Azerbaijan as of 15:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours), CEC Information Centre Director Rufat Gulmammadov told Trend on Dec. 23.
He said 1,563,357 people have already voted. The total number of voters is 4,819,382 people.
The CEC "hot line", e-mail and Facebook page have received over 80 referential appeals up to now, Gulmammadov said, adding that no complaints have been received so far.
The voting in the municipal election is underway in Azerbaijan.
The polling stations opened at 08:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours). The voting will end at 19:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours).
Around 15,035 members of 1,607 municipalities should be elected.
The election is conducted on 118 constituencies. The voting will take place at 5,015 polling stations. Around 4,887 are permanent and 128 - temporary. The municipal election is not held in seven constituencies situated in the territory occupied by Armenia.
Around 37,077 candidates were registered in the municipal election. Around 13,907 candidates were nominated by eight political parties, namely, New Azerbaijan party, Ana Vatan party, Civil Solidarity Party, Umid party, Azerbaijani Social Democratic Party, National Revival Movement Party, Azerbaijan Democratic Reforms Party and Boyuk Qurtulus party.
Around 23,061 candidates are self-nominated and 109 candidates were nominated by the initiative groups.
The interior bodies intensified their activity in connection with the municipal election from December 22-25. On the election day, the number of police patrol officers will be increased to ensure public order.
December 23 is declared a day off in connection with the municipal election.