Azernews.Az

No major violations were observed during Russia's parliamentary election, an Azerbaijani electoral body representative said.
A department head at the Central Election Commission (CEC) Rovzat Gasymov, who monitored the voting, said there was a slew of insignificant irregularities during the electoral process but none of them were serious enough to affect the overall outcome of the vote.
"The complaints mostly concerned the presence of police officers in ballot stations. The Russian Central Election Commission has explained this by security considerations, saying the law enforcers did not interfere with the conduct of the voting," Gasymov said.
He pointed out a number of problems with voter lists. "However, unlike Azerbaijan, the solution of related problems in Russia is not complex. Citizens not included in the lists are able to cast their votes by using additional lists instead of appealing to courts."
The five-people strong group of Azerbaijani observers, led by the CEC chairman Mazahir Panahov, monitored the voting primarily in Moscow's polling stations.
The number of complaints filed to Russia's electoral body was not that large.
Nonetheless, observers from the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly said the election "was not fair and failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections".
Several European countries and the United States have called on the Russian authorities to investigate allegations of electoral fraud.
11 parties were competing for seats in the State Duma. President Vladimir Putin's United Russia swept about 70 percent of Sunday's vote.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday congratulated his Russian counterpart on the ruling party's victory at the polls.
"This proves that Russians back your policy aimed at strengthening statehood and sovereignty, democratic changes in all areas and bolstering Russia's position and image in the international arena," Aliyev said in his congratulatory message.
The Azerbaijani leader also expressed hope that the unity shown by the Russian voters and their support of United Russia heralded the successful implementation of programs initiated by Putin.