Voting in Azerbaijani presidential election taking place with high voter turnout

BAKU. Feb 7 (Interfax) - Voting in Wednesday's snap presidential election in Azerbaijan is taking place with a high voter turnout, head of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) observer mission and CIS Secretary General Sergei Lebedev said.

"Voting is taking place in an organized manner, with a high voter turnout. This is very important. We view the high voter turnout at the presidential election in Azerbaijan as the interest of citizens, [...] to affirm the intention to continue to do everything to ensure peace, stability and calm to reign in the country," Lebedev told reporters at a polling station in Baku, where the mission is monitoring the election.

As of noon local time, 2,499,033,000 voters or 38.57% of eligible voters have voted in Azerbaijan. Head of the Information Center of the Azerbaijani Central Elections Commission (CEC) Secretariat Farid Orujov gave this data at a press briefing, an Interfax correspondent reported.

Voting is currently underway at 6,499 out of 6,537 polling stations. The CEC emphasized that 6,478,840 voters are eligible to vote in Azerbaijan.

A snap presidential election is taking place in Azerbaijan on February 7 and is being held for the first time all over the country, including the Karabakh region. Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m., voting will end at 7:00 p.m.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev voted in the city of Khankendi (Karabakh region of the country) in the snap presidential election in Azerbaijan on Wednesday.

"On February 7, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and members of their family voted at polling station No. 14 of electoral district No. 122 in the city of Khankendi," the presidential website said.

The Azerbaijani CEC plans to announce the first results of the snap presidential election tentatively at 9:00 p.m., CEC Chairperson Mazahir Panahov said.

"Based on previous experience, we can say that the first voting results will be announced at 9:00 p.m.," Panahov said at a press conference on Wednesday.

All conditions have been created for citizens to vote, he said. He also called February 7 a "historic day."

The voting will end at 7:00 p.m., Panahov said. "After that, polling stations will be closed and the vote counting process will begin," he said.

Forty-nine polling stations have been set up in 37 countries abroad for Azerbaijani citizens to vote. Web cameras have been installed at 1,000 polling stations. In general, over 90,000 local and foreign observers have been registered.

The Azerbaijani president is elected for a seven-year term, there are no restrictions on the number of terms. There are seven candidates running for president, including incumbent President Aliyev.

The previous presidential election was held in April 2018, and Aliyev won the election with 86.22% of the vote and a 74.51% voter turnout.