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1st LD: Azerbaijan ruling party claims victory in parliamentary election

Xinhua, November 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Azerbaijan's ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan Party) claimed a landslide victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections after preliminary election results were made public by the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan Sunday night.

The former Soviet republic's 5,415 permanent and 132 temporary polling stations closed at 7 p.m. local time with some 55.7 percent of its eligible voters having casted their ballots for a new parliament.

With a vast majority of the votes counted on Sunday night, Azerbaijan's ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan expects to receive a significant majority of seats in the 125-seat parliament.

The highest voter turnout was recorded at Baku's Khazar district (81.2 percent), while the lowest was observed at Surakhani district of the Azerbaijan capital.

"We are satisfied with the voting process, although it is too early to say something," Yeni Azerbaijan Party's executive secretary Ali Ahmadov told media here on Sunday, adding that the party looks to receive at least 70 seats in the new parliament. "This is also confirmed by the exit-poll."

Some leading opposition groups boycotted the vote.

The parliamentary race featured 767 candidates competing for seats in the 125-member parliament (Milli Majlis) for a five-year term.

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) refused to send monitors to the polls after Baku sought to limit their number to a core team of 131 long-term and short-term observers.

The 2015 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan have been observed by some 503 international observers representing nearly 40 international organizations including the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA), and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Most international observers have described the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan as "excellently organized, democratic and transparent." Enditem