(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party has already claimed victory in the elections held on Sunday, with exit polls conducted in 118 districts by the local ELS Independent Research Center projecting it has won 69 of the 125 seats in parliament.
Dismissing opposition allegations of fraud, the party's executive secretary, Ali Akhmedov, said, "I am certain that we won. We are very satisfied with our results," DPA reported.
All candidates were given equal opportunities, he said in the capital Baku, before official results were to be released by the Central Election Commission on Monday morning.
According to the exit polls, independent candidates have acquired 35 seats, with the remaining seats being shared between a handful of other parties.
An electoral bloc that had been seen as the main opposition contender, bringing together the Azerbaijani Popular Front and the Musavat parties, appeared to have won no seats according to the exit polls.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has sent about 300 observers to monitor the voting and plans to issue a statement on the conduct of the election on Monday.
No serious irregularities were recorded during the observation, said OSCE observation mission representatives Maria Norden and Federlay Frederick after the polls closed.
“While observing the voting, we saw that all the processes are in line with the requirements of the law. The voting procedure has been organized properly, with the exception of several negative cases,” they added.
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