Parliamentary elections started today in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Elections to the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis started at 08:00 am, the voting will last until 19:00. Voters will choose 125 of the 767 most deserving candidates for parliamentary seats in the republic. According to the CEC, preliminary data on the vote will be published at 10:00, 12:00, 15:00, 17:00 and 19:00, and the first results of the vote counting will appear during the night on November 2.
These parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are being observed by 503 international observers, representing 40 organizations, and more than 66 thousand local observers. Web cameras are installed in 1,000 polling stations in 119 electoral districts.
Exit polls at the elections are conducted by the independent research center ELS, Monitoring Center RƏY, the center for protection of rights of Azerbaijani youth, together with the French Institute for Social Research Opinion Way and the League for the Protection of Labor Rights together with AJF & Associates Inc.
According to the first official report of the CEC, as of 10:00 voter turnout amounted to 12.8% (667,732 people). Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva and their family members were among the first to vote.
Turkey, in its turn, is electing a parliament for the second time this year, after the previous convocation was unable to form a coalition government. Polling stations also opened at 08:00 according to local time, the voting will last until 18:00. The elections involve 29 parties. According to experts, the main competitors for seats in the parliament are, once again, the ruling Justice and Development Party and the People's Republican Party.
