Activities ALL EVENTS
We have a long day ahead of us, says Leonid Sloutskiy
09 October 2013
Presidential elections in Azerbaijan started this morning. By 8 a.m. all balloting stations were open. 5.1 eligible voters may come over to cast their vote for one of the ten election contenders. In the initial two hours, 18% of voters turned out at the polling stations. IPA CIS observers are busy monitoring a range of polling stations from the very beginning.
Leonid Sloutskiy Coordinator of IPA CIS Observation Team
This campaign a range of electoral practices, even compared to the last elections, both presidential and parliamentary. This suggests intensive work of the CEC to improve the election system. This work fosters the expression of the free will and the sense of personal responsibility for the outcome of elections. The opening of the polling stations was a case in point.
Today we visited four electoral stations deployed in 134 schools of the city of Baku. We checked the polling bulletins, inspected the sealed boxes and talked to observers from the contenders and their political parties.
The Team Leader went on to say the work of elecoms and their setup at particular sites was in compliance with the high standards applied in the CIS. My chief concern as the Team Leader is the free expression of popular will and the possibility to monitor the process first hand.
