Preliminary results of parliamentary elections summed up in Azerbaijan
The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan summed up the preliminary outcomes of the parliamentary elections 2015. According to the preliminary results, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party claimed victory in the elections winning 70 of the 125 seats in the Parliament of the country, Trend news agency reports.
According to preliminary data, the voter turnout was 55.7 percent. In total, 2.89 million of 5.2 million voters attended the elections.
Along with the ruling party, the following parties will be represented in the new Parliament:
Party of Popular Front of United Azerbaijan – 1 seat;
National Revival Movement Party – 1 seat;
Great Order Party – 1 seat;
Civic Solidarity Party – 2 seat;
Party of Democratic Reforms – 1 seat;
Ana Vatan Party – 1 seat;
Unity Party – 1 seat;
Civic Unity Party – 1 seat;
Social Prosperity Party – 1 seat;
Democratic Enlightenment Party – 1 seat;
Social Democratic Party – 1 seat;
Independent MPs – 43 seats.
Referencing the exit poll results, George Birnbaum, executive director at Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates, said 65 of the winning candidates are ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) representatives. Twenty candidates who won in other 53 districts are independent candidates. The poll results also show that despite 28 of the winning candidates are YAP members, they are self-nominated. Five of the winning candidates are members of other parties. Ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party won the 74 percent of exit poll votes.
On 1 November, Azerbaijan held elections, where 767 candidates were struggling for the 125 seats in the Parliament. Around 5.2 million Azerbaijani citizens could use their right to vote in 5547 polling stations. The elections were observed by 503 international monitors from 40 organisations, including PACE, Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries. International agencies took up rather stern stance over the upcoming parliamentary elections. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced that, due to restrictions imposed by the Azerbaijani authorities, ODIHR had no choice but to cancel its mission to observe the country’s parliamentary elections. The European Parliament followed the suit.