Turkish Supreme Electoral Council talks Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections

By Trend

The election process was organized at the highest level and voting went on without any problems, Head of the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (Yüksek Seçim Kurulu) Muharrem Akkaya, who monitors the early parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, told Trend.

"We have been in Azerbaijan for several days, and we are observing both the preparation and the voting process of the parliamentary elections. Today we watched the vote at several precincts," Akkaya said.

"All necessary conditions were provided. This is the first time I am observing parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. There were no obstacles in the election process. Despite the cold weather, the voter turnout was high," Muharrem Akkaya said.

"Azerbaijan is a brotherly country, we feel at home. We continue the observation. Cameras have been installed in the precincts and thus, the possibility of obstructing the process has been eliminated."

The parliamentary elections of the sixth convocation are being held in Azerbaijan on Feb. 9.

Some 1,314 candidates were registered within the early parliamentary elections.

The candidacies of 246 people were nominated by 19 political parties, 1,057 were self-nominated, 11 - by initiative groups.

Twenty-one percent account for female candidates while 79 percent – male candidates.

Throughout the day, 5,573 permanent polling stations operate in 125 constituencies of the country.

There are 5,329,460 registered voters in the country, and 340,689 internally displaced people can vote in 573 polling stations.

Some 883 international observers and 77,790 local observers are monitoring the voting process. Among the local observers, 35,152 are representatives of political parties. International observers represent 58 countries and 59 organizations.

Exit polls are conducted by AJF & Associates Inc. (US) jointly with Citizens’ Labor Rights Protection League, the Rey Monitoring Center, and the French OpinionWay Research Institute together with the “Human Rights in the XXI Century – Azerbaijan” Foundation.