BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 4. Western assessments of Azerbaijan's elections are biased and do not reflect reality, said Russia's Foreign Ministry, Trend reports.
"Once again, Western actors and their affiliated international organizations have offered biased and subjective evaluations that do not accurately represent the true nature of the democratic process in the republic. The observers sent by Russia through the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) did not record any significant violations of citizens' electoral rights.
We anticipate that the close and constructive cooperation between the newly elected members of Azerbaijan's Milli Majlis and Russia's Federal Assembly, which reflects the allied relationship between our countries, will continue," the ministry's statement reads.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Azerbaijan on September 1.
A total of 112,749 local observers were registered to monitor the elections, with more than 65,000 of them representing political parties. There were 598 registered international observers from 51 organizations and 69 countries.
Out of the 990 registered candidates in the parliamentary elections, 305 are from 25 political parties. While 371 candidates are members of political parties, they were not nominated by the parties they belong to. In total, 676 candidates have political party affiliations.