Azernews.Az

BAKU – Most observers monitoring Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections have praised the conduct of the vote.

1,024 international observers representing 20 international organizations and diplomatic missions followed Sunday’s polling, along with over 48,000 local monitors.

690 candidates contested 125 seats in the Milli Majlis. Parliament members were elected for a five-year term under the majority of votes.

Turnout was 50.14 percent, or 2,480,205 of the 4,950,000 eligible voters in the country of 9 million people, the senior electoral body said.

Azerbaijan ‘on right path’ towards democracy
Head of an observation mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Paul Wille has said Azerbaijan is on a right path towards democratization.

"I haven’t heard of serious problems during the voting process," he said, commenting on the results of the mission`s monitoring.

Wille said that from the organizational point of view the elections met international standards.

CIS has ‘positive impressions’
The 351-people-strong CIS election observation mission, the largest mission of observers, has "positive impressions’ about the polling, CIS Executive Committee chairman and mission head Sergei Lebedev has said.

Lebedev told reporters that the polling was proceeding in a low-key environment. "Overall, voting is underway normally, and the people are in a good mood."

Election ‘well-organized’
The chief of GUAM, a group of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, has said Azerbaijan’s parliamentary election was organized very well.

"I have very good impressions about the course of the polling," GUAM Secretary General Valeri Chechelashvili said. "Voters are enjoying every opportunity to make their choice calmly and there are no shortfalls."

No feedback from OSCE yet
Janez Lenarcic, who heads the 316-member election observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), declined comment on the elections for now.

He said OSCE ODIHR will release its preliminary feedback on Monday, adding that a final report on the election outcomes will be released in two months.

U.S. ‘closely following’ electoral process
US Charge D’Affairs in Azerbaijan Adam Sterling has said Washington was closely following the electoral process underway in the country.

Sterling said 31 representatives of the US embassy were observing the polling both in the capital Baku and Azerbaijani regions. Also, 45 American citizens are conducting observations as part of the OSCE ODIHR election observation mission.

According to Sterling, the US State Department will issue a statement detailing the US observers’ final findings.

"The United States hopes that Azerbaijan’s sustainable stability and development will promote the strengthening of relations between the two countries," the charge d’affairs added.

Azeri voters ‘more active’ than Europeans
Dutch lawmaker Coshgun Choruz has said people in Azerbaijan are participating in the elections more actively than European voters.

"This election will take Azerbaijan a step further," he said.

Canadian Senator Consiglio Di Nino has said no major violations of law were witnessed and only minor misunderstandings "which occur during all electoral processes" were noted in the polling stations observed.

Di Nino welcomed the activeness of citizens and said he was surprised with the great number of observers.

"We were not expecting to see so many observers. The presence of independent monitors along with representatives of international institutions and non-governmental organizations indicates that the conduct of the elections is normal."

Turkish lawmaker cites improvements
Mustafa Atas, a Turkish parliament member who also observed the 2005 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, has said considerable improvements have been achieved in the past five years, and Sunday’s polling was democratic.

"In the ballot stations where I conducted observations, I witnessed that representatives of all political forces were freely observing the conduct of the polling. The elections are being held transparently and democratically, and even voters who cannot participate in the elections due to illness are being provided with an opportunity to vote at home."