BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 29. Voter turnout is expected to increase during the day in Azerbaijan's ongoing municipal elections, Head of the 13th polling station in Yasamal's first electoral district No. 15, Elshad Miranov, told Trend.
In his statement to the agency, Miranov noted that around 250 voters had cast their ballots so far. He added that a total of 1,337 voters are registered at this station.
"We also have a mobile ballot box available, but we have not received any requests for it yet. Overall, voter activity is good, and we expect an increase in participation in the second half of the day. Citizens are showing interest in the elections," he added.
As of 10:00 (GMT+4), 499,575 voters had participated in Azerbaijan’s municipal elections. The voter turnout stood at 8.38 percent.
To note, voting for the municipal election started at all polling stations in Azerbaijan at 08:00 and will run until 19:00 (GMT+4).
A total of 8,071 municipal representatives will be elected in 685 municipalities among 118 electoral districts. There are 5,846 polling booths for the municipal election. Among these, 5,734 are permanent positions, and 112 are temporary positions. The number of eligible voters is 5,961,987.
Altogether 70,625 observers were accredited by the Central Election Commission and District Election Commissions for the municipal election. Web cameras have already been installed at 1,000 polling stations.
This Azerbaijani municipal election is the first in the country's liberated territories and the sixth overall. The inaugural municipal election in Azerbaijan occurred on December 12, 1999. Consequently, up to 2,660 municipalities (exceeding 21,000 municipal members) were established nationwide. Nineteen members were elected to the largest municipality and five to the smallest municipality.
Municipalities in Azerbaijan are elected for a five-year term. Members of municipalities may be elected by Republic of Azerbaijan citizens who are eligible to vote and permanently reside in the appropriate electoral district.
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