Today starts voting for election of President of Azerbaijan

Baku. 11 April. REPORT.AZ/ The voting has today started for election of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Report informs, citizens who have turned 18 may come to polling stations and vote.

There are 5 million 309 thousand 434 voters in the country. The number of ballot papers exceeds by 3% the number of voters i.e. 5 million 347 thousand 803 ballots had already been printed.

There are 125 electoral districts in Azerbaijan. The number of permanent polling station in the country equals to 5426, while untemporary polling stations are 215. 5253 commission members with consultative capacity have been appointed to election commissions.

13,820 citizens will vote at 41 polling stations established beyond the country.

The mobile wheelchair ramps have been installed at 1,455 polling stations in order to ensure unimpeded movement of voters with restricted movement abilities. Every polling station has been provided with template forms prepared in Braille alphabet for free voting of voters with eye disabilities.

“Els” Independent Investigation Center, “REY” Monitoring Center, and the League of defense of citizens’ labor rights in collaboration with “Arthur Finkelstein and Association” Company of the US and the Independent consultation and assistance center for civil society in collaboration with “Opinion Way” organization of France will carry out “exit-poll” survey in the country on April 11.

According to the Calendar Plan of the main actions and measures for preparation and conduct of the Presidential Elections of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Central Election Commission (CEC) will disclose the initial information on voting process, voter turnout at least 5 times a day (at 10:00, 12:00, 15:00, 17:00 and 19.00).

Any pre-election campaign is prohibited on the voting day.

On April 11, the pre-election campaign materials placed inside and outside of polling station rooms will be removed.

Notably, the CEC has so far registered eight candidates for presidency. They are incumbent President Ilham Aliyev from ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), Gudrat Hasanguliyev, nominated by the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP), Araz Alizade, nominated by the Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, Faraj Guliyev from National Revival Movement Party, Hafiz Hajiyev from Modern Musavat Party, Razi Nurullayev from Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, Sardar Mammadov (Jalaloglu) from the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) and Zahid Oruj, who has nominated his candidacy on his own initiative.

Notably, the President-elect of Azerbaijan will serve for 7 years. 

Today's elections will be observed by about 1,000 international and approximately 60,000 local observers. It will also be possible to track the voting process during the election day from CEC website. Thus, web-cameras have been installed at 1,000 polling stations in 119 electoral districts.