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Municipal elections have been held in Azerbaijan, stated Ali Ahmadov, the Deputy Chairman, Executive Secretary of the ruling party "Yeni Azerbaijan" (YAP). According to "Trend", he noted that about 40 percent of candidates were from YAP.

As the CEC chairman Mazahir Panahov noted, the elections can be considered successful.

However, according to the "Yeni Musavat" newspaper during the vote in municipal elections held in Baku a scandal took place. At a polling station №12 in Yasamal district they tried to take away the camera of a journalist covering the voting process. They came to blows. This happened because the journalist managed to shoot, how one of the women who voted threw in the ballot box a whole pile of ballots. When the journalists turned to the head of the election commission to clear up the situation, the members of the election committee and the people in the civil turned out the journalists, urging them to erase the filmed footage and then insulted them.

"Musavat" party, with reference to its members, reports of serious violations that took place during today's vote in municipal elections. Precinct election commission members turned Javanshir Abbasli, the employee of "Yeni Musavat" newspaper, out from the polling station. This took place on the 17th and 18th polling stations of the 9th Binagadi constituency.

Violations have been also recorded at polling stations 1,2,4,5,7,8,21 polls of the 47th Mingachevirskii constituency, on the 5th polling station of 66 Bilasuvarski, on a 32nd polling station of 71st Masallinkii district, on 2, 3,4 polling station of 108 Akstafa district, on 13,14, 16th polling station of the 9th Binagadinski district.

The most common violation was the massive ballot stuffing by one voter and multiple voting of the same people at different pole stations.

"I wanted to send the President a telegram from the Shamakhi post office. They did not receive the telegram. I arrived in Baku and sent the telegram from the central post office," told Azizbala Fatullayev, candidate member of the municipality of the first Chaylinskii constituency №85 to the Azerbaijani service of Radio "Liberty". Fatullayev added that in the area where he was a candidate, there were multiple interventions in the election process.

The employees of Radio "Liberty" were observing the "carousel" process in the polling stations. A group of women voted in all three stations located in school number 173. Another violation is connected with the ballots. The headmaster told the Radio employee that the ballots were stored in her safe and she was giving them away in batches, about 100 ballots every time. Corners of the batch are being cut and stored on the table, even though it is contradicts the law on elections.

Meanwhile, the representatives of the leading opposition parties in Azerbaijan commented to Turan on why they did not participate in the municipal elections on December 23. "Musavat" did not participate in these elections because they do not present the public interest," said the chairman of the "Musavat" party Arif Hajili.

Another reason for the low interest in the elections is that the municipalities have not formulated as a governing body. Finally, the elections themselves in Azerbaijan are not democratic. Presidential and parliamentary elections are monitored by numerous observers, but their results are falsified too, so do not expect that the outcome of the municipal elections will reflect the will of the voters.
Chairman of the Democratic Party Sardar Jalaloglu noted that his party is not participating in the municipal elections as a political force because of financial difficulties. "These elections cannot be called elections because they do not arouse the public interest, do not serve a democratic development, and are formal," said the chairman of the Democratic Party.

Hasan Kerimov, the Chairman of the Supreme Majlis of PFPA said that neither the party, nor its members took part in the municipal elections. "We do not wish to participate in such elections, giving them a kind of legitimacy," Kerimov said. He recalled that even before the election one of the MPs had told that the list of members of the municipalities is ready. According to Kerimov, the municipalities do not give anything to the people, that is why voters do not participate in this election.