November 6 is the day of Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. On the day prior to elections, 1544 candidates fight for 125 deputy mandates. For November 5 the number of candidates for parliament which left pre-election marathon reached 519, including 472 men and 47 women. According to independent press-center in the CEC, 476 candidates withdrew their candidatures. Registration of 39 candidates was eliminated by the Court of Appeal, 2 candidates by CEC; 2 candidates died (05-NOV-2005).
Media Representatives to Observe Elections
According to Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan’s electoral commission has so far approved 204 journalists from 52 foreign media to cover the November 6 parliamentary elections. From the registered media representatives 19 journalists represent German ADR TV, 5 – ADF TV, 5 the Moscow bureau of BBC, 6 – US CBS News television company. Among these reporters are also those of Arab Al Jazeera, British Sky News, Italian RAI and Japanese NHK TV, Canadian CBC television and radio corporation and TBS television and radio company. Among the accredited are journalists from the Moscow bureau of Eurovision, Dubai, Ukrainian, Turkish, Russian, Kazakh, and Georgian TVs and newspapers. Altogether 22 observers from Russian Federation will watch the elections on 06 November.
Hot Line on the Election Day
The Committee for the rights of journalists of Azerbaijan “RUH” will open on November 6 “hot line” for the parliamentary elections. The Committee informs journalists watching the elections in the constituencies to call in case of “possible unpleasant incidents” to the number (+99412) 499-02-92.
The US Ambassador to Observe the Elections
The U.S. Embassy will send teams to observe the November 6 parliamentary elections in Baku and all around the country. In addition, Ambassador Reno Harnish will observe the elections at various polling stations in Baku. He will also visit the Exit-Poll Information center where the USAID-funded Exit Polls conducted by PA Consulting will be coordinated. In the evening on November 6 PA Consulting will start publishing the preliminary results of exit-poll which will include 65 of the 125 constituencies.
Public Polls
On the 1-st of November the Democratic League of Journalists conducted a public opinion poll in Baku and Sumgait cities. The poll among totally 800 people was held due to East-East Program funded by Open Society Soros Fund. According to the results of the public poll, 13% of the respondents supported authorities, 29% – opposition and the remaining 58% – independent candidates.
Energy Supply on Election Day
The Energy distributing company Barmek-Azerbaijan promised to launch a medium security of work on 4-7 of November. According to the press-secretary of the company Tanriverdi Mustafayev, the company prepared a special plan of activities to secure the energy supply of all the electoral areas, counties, headquarters of the political blocs and candidates which are within the territory of Baku, Sumagait and northern regions. 199 emergency service workers passed a special training for the operative reaction on the complaints. The press-secretary promised that even if the force major situation occurred electric energy supply would be recommenced within 15-20 minuets.
Places of Voting of Political Leaders
According to Turan Information Agency, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will vote in the parliamentary elections on November 6 at 10.00 in the 6-th polling station of the 29th constituency located in the school N6.
The chairman of the PPFA Ali Kerimli will vote in the 22nd Nasimi second polling station located at school N15 ( near the police department) at 11:00.
The head of “Musavat” Isa Gambar will vote at 9.00 in the 23rd polling station of 20th Narimanov second constituency in the building of “Technicabank” in the Ataturk avenue 11/07 (not far from “Genjlic” metro station).
The leader of “National Unanimity” bloc Lala Shovket will vote at school N 190. The time of voting of the last candidate has not been determined yet, but usually it takes part between 10:00 and 12:00.
