06 October 2006, 23:50
Almost 27% of voters appeared to take part in municipal elections in Azerbaijan
They told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" at the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan that as of 6:00 p.m. local time a total of 216,091 voters had taken part in the elections, or 26.84% of all the voters registered in those territories where elections are held. As before, the highest appearance rate of the voters is observed in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, and the lowest one - in the Shekin District.
The Ombudsman's employees have detected no essential violations in the course of voting at municipal elections in Azerbaijan, although certain deficiencies were recorded. Elmira Suleimanova, Ombudsman of Azerbaijan, told these facts to journalists. Among these deficiencies E. Suleimanova single cases when voters' names were missing from the electoral registry. The Ombudsman also noted a smaller number of international and local observers at the elections.
In their turn, at the "Musavat" opposition party, they reported that elections were held with most severe violations, which gave grounds to think that these elections would be faked either.
We remind you that a total of 4525 candidates were hunting for 1931 vacancies in 603 municipalities. 239 of the total candidates running for municipality membership are women, 2096 candidates are independent, 2171 candidates are the members of the ruling party "Eni Azerbaijan", while the remaining ones are the members of other parties. 23 candidates did not indicate their partisan belonging. Voting takes part at 910 polling stations covering 810,000 voters. The CEC has registered 179 observers, and constituency electoral commissions - 8425 local and 32 international ones.
Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent