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2024, 29 Mart, Cümə, Bakı vaxtı 13:41

Azerbaijan Votes (Updated)


Azerbaijan -- parliamentary elections - 01Nov2015
Azerbaijan -- parliamentary elections - 01Nov2015

In total 767 candidates registered to compete for 125 seats. Main opposition party Musavat pulled out majority of its candidates. The National Council- boycotting elections and already said it won't recognize election results. The OSCE ODIHR- long time observers of elections in Azerbaijan do not have a mission this year.

The National Council says Aliyev's regime takes the people's power away by force. In a statement circulated after the elections, the National Council said, "These were the most shameful elections in the history of Azerbaijna. Even before the elections we knew these elections won't be free and democratic. We told you many times about this. The repressive atmosphere in the country felt everywhere. We could not even talk about having free elections in this kind of an environment under the authoritarian leadership".

The National Council also commented on the voter turnout adding unlike official statments from the CEC, there was approximately 10% voter turnout.

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CEC says according to preliminary count some two million eight hundred thousand voters went to the polls today. The official results will be made public around midnight. In total, Azerbaijan has 5,198,658 voters.

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Speaking on the elections in Azerbaijan today, leader of Popular Front Ali Karimli also spoke of mass violations in these elections. "They determine their own people months before the election based on their lists. But they don't understand they are actually burning all the bridges between themselves and the people as well as the world. They will soon regret this. Especially as Azerbaijan is to face social-economic crisis. And to appoint an illegitimate parliament ahead of crisis is irresponsible.

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The voting officially ends in Azerbaijan.

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Ilham Aliyev is certain elections in Azerbaijan are fully transparent. In a meeting with Ilyas Umahanov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Aliyev said Azerbaijan was able to meet maximum transparency and quality in elections as a result of important reforms reports APA.

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"The results of these elections were already determined three months before. These are just games. They are playing the people. Over the past 15-20 years, what have these parliamentarians done for the people? Show me at least one person they have helped? I personally have never seen the face of our parliament representative. Its been 15 years. I only see him on TV and only know his name. It is like a toy. And they are playing with people. Elected ones have already been elected, those in their seats have been there for a while, so this is just a formality.

I have been to all elections- presidential, parliamentary, municipal- all of them are meaningless things. None of the elections were free or democratic. None. And there won't be.

Its in the hands of God. Maybe the all mighty have mercy and give these people some freedom.

[...]

There is so much more to say. You know just as well as I do, that those people in power, all they do is just suck out people's blood. So how can you trust a government that's sucking its people's blood?

I basically came here for fun.

I have seen with my own yes, both during presidential and parliamentary elections how people were brought to this constituency by buses and then taken to another polling station.

These are elections?!

If we truly live in a democracy then we should be able to demand our rights. We should be able to express ourselves freely, no matter who we are, or where we are from.

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One voter decided to leave a message on his ballot. "What elections. Its been 5months since my last pension salary"

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BBC Azerbaijan Service prepared "election dictionary" for Azerbaijan's election using common terminology.

You can see the english translation below the post.

Carousel- is a method used for vote rigging in elections. It often involves a number of people (the bigger the better), taken from constituency to another, casting votes.

Election block- the union of several parties going to the elections together.

Exit poll- stations set up outside of polling stations asking voters about their vote. At the end of the election day the exit poll results are often compared with the official results.

Election system based on the majority vote- candidate collecting the most votes is elected.

Proportional election system- distribution of seats corresponds closely with the proportion of the total votes cast for each party.

Proxy elections- voting in absence of someone who can delegate their voting power.

Pocket opposition- an opposition known for close ties with the ruling powers. They often criticize the real opposition and only sofly criticise the ruling government (as much as they are allowed to)

Foreman and centurions- the foreman is often repsonsible for ballot stuffing and recruiting 10 people with him. They also often tear up opposition posters.

"Chinese" candidates- fake alternative candidate created by the government to simply show some kind of alternative voice.

"Chinese" observer- despite violations pretends everything is transparent, democratic and according to rules.

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In the meantime, CEC made its next round of announcements. According to the most recent data, some 42.9% of voters cast their votes.

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While elections are still a few hours away from wrapping up an independent observer shared the following picture:

Looks like the No.9 constituency in Binagadi region already decided on the number and percentage of voters until 7pm much in advance.

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Ali Hasanov is certain a country does not need international observers to hold democratic elections. Hasanov, who is the presidential aide on social and political issues also the legimacy of the election is determined by the people rather than international institutions. "In our country it is the voters who determine the legitimacy of an election. For us, if our voters are able to vote in free and democratic environment without any external pressures, this is legitimacy. Surely, opinions of this or that international institution does carry some weight especially since we are looking for shared values with our international partners [...] As for the ODIHR, an institution which was always critical of elections in Azerbaijan, it decided against sending an observation mission this time. This was as a result of discrimination in their monitoring methodology [...] ODIHR not coming to Azerbaijan has nothing to do with determining whether elections in Azerbaijan were democratic or not. They have simply taken this step [not sending a mission] based on their subjective conclusions [...] We want ODIHR to see the people's will and respect Azerbaijan's democratic achievements. If they are disrespectful then we too will act accordingly".

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What you need to know about elections in #Azerbaijan

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PACE delegation member Agustin Conde says no violations so far observed in the elections.

According to AzerTac, Conde said, "there are improvements in the organization of the elections. We observe high turnout as people enjoy their voting rights".

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Voter turnout the most recent update:

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More carousel voting

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Leonid Slutsky, the head of the mission of observers of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and the mission of observers from the Russian State Duma says elections in Azerbaijan organized well accusing OSCE ODIHR for unfair monitoring.

"Elections are organized so well that OSCE's ODIHR is basically bankrupt. The fact that this organization decided against sending a monitoring mission shows that the institution is finished. ODIHR allows itself to be manipulated. And for its mission not coming to Azebaijan won't damage the country's image or its flourishing economy", said Slutsky in an interview with Azertac.

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There are 252 new voters in these electionsas they turn 18. Heydar Aliyev, president Ilham Aliyev's son is among them. He voted for the first time today.

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As voting continues across Azerbaijan, members of N!DA movement said they are crossing over all candidate names indicated on the ballots, replacing them with N!DA activists currently in jail writing at the bottom of the ballot, "this youth won't forgive you".

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Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev voted together with this family.

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Carousel voting in action

Azerbaijan -- carousel at the elections, Baku, 1Nov2015
Azerbaijan -- carousel at the elections, Baku, 1Nov2015

First the group is instructed.

Azerbaijan -- carousel at the election, Baku, 1Nov2015
Azerbaijan -- carousel at the election, Baku, 1Nov2015

Then the group heads to the polling station.

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Accoring to the Central Election Committee some 12% of voters already voted.

The first official statement indicates 667,732 people voted by 10:00 this morning.

In total, Azerbaijan has 5,198.658 voters.

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A number of violations already observed in some of the polling stations.

According to Sakhavet Guliyev, representative of Musavat party, a group of unregistered voters, just cast their votes at polling station no. 79 in Imishli. They were not registered at this station says Guliyev. The present election commission didn't respond to Guliyev's questions.

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