The period of the municipal election campaign ended in Azerbaijan at 8.00am today. According to article 75.2 of the Azerbaijani Electoral Code, campaigning starts 23 days before the elections (on November 30) and ends 24 hours before the election day (December 23), Trend reports.
37,079 candidates have been registered. 18,790 of them are members of 30 political parties, 18,289 are independent.
4 million 976 thousand 302 ballots have been printed for elections.
15,035 members will be elected in 1607 municipalities in 118 constituencies.
Voting results should be announced before 17 January 2015.
Milli Majlis deputy and political scientist Aydin Mirzazade told Vestnik Kavkaza about the importance of these elections for Azerbaijan. According to him, from the date of the last municipal elections, local authorities had done a great job on their own development.
"These are the fourth elections since independence in Azerbaijan municipalities. Local authorities are working out local issues: infrastructure, landscaping areas, social issues, support for entrepreneurship and so on. Over the years, the country managed to get some experience in local government. This is a new phenomenon for Azerbaijan, which is studying and learning from its neighbors and developed European countries experience in municipal government. I believe that we have achieved a great deal in this, and municipalities as institutions of governance have already appeared, the people they tested with the necessary skills for close work with the population," Mirzazade said.
Mirzazade said that these elections will be held in a democratic atmosphere and will be transparent in accordance with all legal requirements. "This election, involving about 20 political parties, has five candidates for every place in the republic on the average. CEC and local electoral committees have registered more than 40 thousand observers. I think that tomorrow will be an important step in nation-building, with regard to the development of important local issues. The press has been widely discussing this campaign, and the electoral process itself will be extensively covered. I am a member of the CEC too and I have an advisory input from "Yeni Azerbaijan" and will be at the opening of the elections in one of the distant parts of the suburbs of Baku," the deputy said, adding that he intends to observe the elections in all the 12 administrative districts of the capital.
