15:10, 10 April 2018

Azerbaijan announces "Day of Silence" on the eve of presidential election

Agitation banners in Baku streets, April 9, 2018. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the Caucasian Knot

In Azerbaijan, today, any agitation for the presidential election is prohibited starting from 8:00 a.m. The voting will take place on April 11.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Azerbaijan, the presidential election was initially scheduled for October 17, 2018, but in early February, Ilham Aliev rescheduled it for April 11. The Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) registered eight presidential candidates, including incumbent President Ilham Aliev.

The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), the "Musavat" and "Umid" Parties refused to take part in the early election, while the movements "Republican Alternative" (ReAl) and "Nida" warned they would not recognize the results of the voting.

Today, Azerbaijan has the "Day of Silence". That means the time period allocated for the pre-election campaign is over.

According to Mazakhir Panakhov, the chair of the CEC of Azerbaijan, the CEC did not register any serious violations during the pre-election campaign.

The election day is declared to be a non-working day in Azerbaijan.

The Central Election Commission has also announced that almost 900 international observers are registered to attend the presidential election. The number of local observers accredited for the election exceeds 58,000, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.