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Azerbaijan enters Day of Silence on eve of parliamentary elections

Xinhua, November 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Azerbaijan entered Saturday what officials called a day of silence when all political campaigning is banned, as the oil-rich Caspian sea nation is set to hold parliamentary elections within 24 hours.

Sunday's race features some 760 candidates vyng for 125 seats in the parliament.

The Silence Day is meant to give the voters a final chance to make up their mind about choosing their candidate, away from the pressures of election propaganda.

On this day, the media is banned from reporting any news stories relating to parties, politicians, or opinion polls.

Campaigning this month was low key, mainly because most believed the result is a foregone conclusion. Political observers predicted victory for the Azerbaijan's ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan and nominally independent candidates.

The 2015 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan will be observed by up to 60,000 local and 500 international observers including the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and CIS.

Azerbaijan, complying with its commitments as part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), sent an invitation on July 14 to the OSCE/ODIHR to observe the parliamentary election.

Europe's main election monitoring organization - the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) earlier in September abandoned its plan to send a big team to Azerbaijan.

Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are held each five years on first Sunday of November. Every citizen above 25 may be elected to parliament in an established order.

Last parliamentary elections were held in Azerbaijan on Nov. 7, 2010. The elections were observed by monitors from the European Parliament, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. Enditem