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Roundup: Azerbaijan's ruling party wins majority in parliamentary elections

Xinhua, November 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

The ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) Party won most parliamentary seats in Sunday's elections, the country's Central Election Commission said Monday.

Candidates of the ruling party took 70 of the 125 seats in the single-chamber parliament, claiming a landslide victory in the voting, commission Chairman Mazahir Panahov announced.

Meanwhile, a host of small parties and independents also loyal to the government took most of the rest, he added.

Some 55.7 percent of the country's eligible voters casted ballots in Sunday's race which featured 767 candidates competing for seats in the 125-member parliament (Milli Majlis) for a five-year term.

Some leading opposition groups boycotted the vote.

The 2015 elections in Azerbaijan were observed by more than 500 international observers representing nearly 40 international organizations, including the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Most of the international observers have described the election in Azerbaijan as "excellently organized, democratic and transparent."

A 28-member delegation from PACE said the election generally met international standards although some observers disagreed.

"The voting process was observed to be adequate and generally in line with international standards," the PACE mission said in a statement. Despite some shortcomings, the results expressed the will of the people, it said.

Head of the 147-member CIS observation mission Sergey Lebedev during a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday said the elections "were conducted in compliance with the law of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the citizens of the country were provided with the opportunity to freely make their choice."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Europe's main election watchdog, did not monitor the poll because it said restrictions imposed by the authorities made credible monitoring impossible.

President Aliyev called the action of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights "unacceptable."

Azerbaijan's parliament is elected every five years through voting for individual candidates in electoral districts. Enditem