Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Serious violations have not been observed during the presidential election, OSCE PA Vice President, Georgian MP Giorgi Tsereteli said on October 9.

"The elections are held in a peaceful atmosphere," he noted. "The voting process is carried out in accordance with the law, and we have not observed any serious violations."

Technical equipment of the electoral process is at a good level, Tsereteli added.

A member of OSCE observation mission, Slovak MP Andrei Kolesnikov also stressed the absence of problems during the voting process.

"The voting process is very well organized," Kolesnikov said.

The head of Russian CEC Vladimir Churov also believes the presidential election in Azerbaijan is being held in normal conditions.

No violations were observed during the voting, while the voters' turnout is high, he said.

"I hope that this activity will be observed till the end of the election," Churov said.

The co-chairman of Iran-Azerbaijan Friendship Group Ahad Gazai also noted the high activity of voters at the elections.

"We have visited several polling stations where we witnessed that the population has been actively participating in the elections since early morning," Gazai said.

According to him, he has been an observer in several elections in Azerbaijan before.

"The distinctive feature of these elections from the previous ones is higher activity of the people in the elections since early morning hours," Gazai said.

"We didn't face any infringement of the law. The election process was organized in such a way that there are no conditions for violation of law," he said.

The head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), the head of the BSEC observation group for the presidential election in Azerbaijan Ismail Safi, Azerbaijan is a democratic country, and today democratic elections are held here.

"I believe that Azerbaijan will hold fair, transparent and democratic elections today," Safi said.

According to him, Turkey has always been close to the brotherly Azerbaijani state, and will be so in the future.

"I often visit Azerbaijan and with each next visit I see something new. Such large positive changes cause a sense of pride in the brotherly country. Generally, among the Turkish and Azerbaijani peoples special relationships have been established...," Safi said.

He emphasized that Azerbaijan has become a very serious player in the region, neighboring countries and the international arena. "Turkey has repeatedly been alone in its position on the international arena, but now Azerbaijan supports us and is with us. We are proud to have a strong, reliable brotherly state with a stable energy supply," Safi noted.

Both countries have come a long way of development in the last ten years, and most importantly, this development has been stable from economic and political points of view, both in Turkey and in Azerbaijan, he noted.

Turkish MP from the Republican People's Party Ensar Ogut also said the presidential elections are being held in a completely transparent atmosphere.

Ogut is observing the voting process in the polling station No.7 of the first Narimanov constituency No.19.

"The voters are not being pressured in anyway, everyone is voting freely," he noted.

Editor-in-chief of the famous Russian magazine "Echo of the Planet" Elmar Huseynov, who is observing the voting process in Guba region, said a permanent stream of voters is being observed at polling stations of Guba region.

After visiting several polling stations in Guba he noticed that the earliest visitors of the polling stations were the older generation and by noon a stream of younger people began to arrive.

"In order to ensure a normal voting process, all necessary conditions were created," Huseynov said. "Sufficiently detailed voter lists have been prepared, which allows to avoid queues."

The Central Election Commission (CEC) established 5,273 permanent and 219 temporary polling stations as part of the October 9 presidential elections.

A total of 52,000 people are observing the elections in Azerbaijan, nearly 1,400 of whom are international observers.

The CEC has registered 5,145,000 voters in Azerbaijan, which has a population of around 9.4 million.

Ten candidates are running for presidency, including the chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party, incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, the chairman of Umid Party Igbal Aghazade, self-nominated candidate MP Zahid Oruj, the chairman of the United Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev, the chairman of Modern Musavat Party Hafiz Hajiyev, the chairman of Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party Araz Alizade, 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 Adalat Party, MP Ilyas Ismayilov and the chairman of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party Sardar Jalaloglu.