BAKU, FEB 09 – Elections to the Azerbaijani parliament has today kicked off on Sunday. Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Mazahir Panahov declared that the polling stations are open from 08:00 (GMT +4) for voting.

The Information Center of the Secretariat of the Central Election Commission will inform about the voting process and provide preliminary data at 10:00, 12:00, 15:00, 17:00 and 19:00.

As many as 1,314 candidates (21 percent female and 79 percent male candidates) were registered for the snap parliamentary elections.

Around 246 people were nominated by 19 political parties, 1,057 were nominated individually and 11 were from initiative groups.

A total of 5,573 permanent polling stations will operate in 125 constituencies of the country throughout the day.

About 5 329 460 voters will take part in the voting. As many as 340,689 internally displaced persons will vote in 573 precincts.

Around 883 international and 77,790 local observers will monitor the voting process. Of the local observers, 35,152 are representatives of political parties. International observers represent 58 countries and 59 organizations.

Exit polls will be conducted by AJF & Associates Inc. (US), Citizens’ Labor Rights Protection League, the Rey Monitoring Center and the French OpinionWay Research Institute together with the “Human Rights in the XXI Century – Azerbaijan” Foundation.