UK observers at Azerbaijan's elections: This practice must be applied in many countries, including UK

By Trend

The invitation of more than 800 foreign observers testifies to the comprehensive preparation for the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, UK’s observer mission consisting of six people said.

The mission made the remark at the press-conference in Baku, Trend reports on Feb. 10.

The UK observer mission has monitored the elections in Azerbaijan for the fifth time. The members of the mission participated as observers in the presidential election.

“The voting process was organized comprehensively,” the members of the mission said. “For example, there was brief information opposite the names of the candidates on the ballots. We think that this practice must be applied in many countries, including UK. We also want to stress the documents that reflect the rights and obligations of observers. Some 80 percent of the observers were women and this also a positive factor."

The parliamentary elections were held in Azerbaijan on February 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 accounted for female candidates while 79 percent – male candidates.

As many as 5,426 permanent polling stations operated in 125 constituencies of the country.

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