Preliminary results out for Azerbaijan’s snap polls

By Jeyhun Aliyev

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AA) - The election commission of Azerbaijan announced Monday the preliminary results for Sunday's snap parliamentary polls held in the country without revealing the party-based distribution.

However, exit polls have suggested that candidates from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) gained the majority of the seats in the parliament -- 69 seats in the Milli Majlis, or the National Assembly -- while independent candidates received 41 seats.

Monday's preliminary results were announced based on data received from 4,823 polling stations in 118 constituencies, which represents 87% of the polling stations, said chief election commissioner Mazahir Panahov.

A total of 2,547,982 people voted in the country with a turnout of 47.81%.

Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry congratulated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the ruling party for their election success.

A total of 1,314 candidates joined the race. Among them were almost 300 women.

The 246 candidacies were nominated by 19 political parties, while 1,057 others were self-nominated, and 11 candidates were nominated by the initiative groups.

Over 5.3 million people were registered to cast votes to choose the deputies.

More than 130 international media outlets from 47 countries covered the snap election, and over 77,000 local and 883 foreign observers were accredited to monitor the polls.

Some 35,152 of local observers were representatives of political parties. International observers represented 58 countries and 59 organizations.