‘Day of silence’ on eve of Azerbaijani parliamentary elections

Saturday has been designated a ‘day of silence’ in connection with
tomorrow’s parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. Electioneering and
campaigning has been forbidden, in order to give the electorate a
chance to determine their political preferences in a calm atmosphere.
The electoral code of the country bans publication in the media of
opinion polls and election forecasts 24 hours before polling opens on
Sunday at 8 am local time.

The fourth post-Soviet elections to the 125-seat Azerbaijani parliament are held under a first-past-the-post system, with a 4.6-million strong registered electorate. 688 candidates including 94 women will be running for a seat in the Milli Majlis.

The Central Electoral Commission announced yesterday that all the
nation‘s polling stations are ready for work.

33 political parties, including the ruling “New Azerbaijan” party, fielding 111 candidates, and the opposition blocs “PNFA-Musavat”, “Karabakh” and “Reform”, will participate in the elections.

46,569 local and 1026 international observers from 48 countries have
been registered from a range of organisations including PACE, the
OSCE, the CIS and various embassies. Media observers include the heads
of the information agency “Vestnik Kavkaza”, Ismail Agakishiev and
Alexei Vlasov.