CEC head: High voter turnout observed at Azerbaijan’s presidential election

Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 9 / Trend M. Aliyev / Very high turnout is being observed in Azerbaijan's presidential election, chairman of the Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC), Mazahir Panahov said at the meeting with chairman of the Belarusian Central Election Commission Lidia Yermoshina today. Panahov informed about the preparatory process for the election. He stressed that all standards of international practice were used to hold free and transparent elections. All necessary conditions were created. "Polling stations are equipped with all information technologies," Panahov added. "The conditions were created for direct observing the electoral process from any country." According to Panahov, a hotline was created to prevent negative cases during the electoral process. Yermoshina in turn highly assessed preparation for the elections. She underscored that noticeable activity of the voters is being observed at the elections. The presidential election voting started in Azerbaijan on Wednesday. Country's polling stations opened at 8:00 am and will close at 7:00 pm (local time). Ten candidates are taking part in the elections including the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the chairman of Umid Party Igbal Aghazadeh, self-nominated candidate MP Zahid Oruj, the chairman of the United Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (UAPFP) MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev, the chairman of the Modern Musavat Party Hafiz Hajiyev, the chairman of the Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party (ASDP) Araz Alizadeh, the chairman of the National Revival Movement Party, MP Faraj Guliyev, the candidate nominated by the initiative group of voters of the 'National Council of Democratic Forces', Jamil Hasanli, the chairman of the Adalat Party, MP Ilyas Ismayilov and the chairman of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) Sardar Jalaloglu. The Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan has registered 5,145,643 voters. In connection with the presidential elections, the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan established 5,273 permanent and 219 temporary polling stations. Web cameras have been installed in 1000 polling stations in 119 constituencies of Azerbaijan. Unlike in previous years, this time the voting process can be monitored via mobile devices such as smartphones. Totally, 52,000 people are observing the election in Azerbaijan, nearly 1,400 of which are international observers. Also, the presidential election is being covered by over 70 representatives from over 20 international media outlets. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az