The Central Election Commission (CEC) conducted a session chaired by Mr.Mazahir Panahov on January 12, 2014.

During the session an issue on the results of the Municipal Elections held on December 23, 2014 was considered. The Municipal Elections conducted on December 23, 2014 was stated to have played a special role in the history of the country. CEC and the relevant state structures focused on the implementation of the duties implied by the Election Code for the top-level preparation and conduct of elections. Important stages in the election process which include the update of voters’ lists, improve of normative-legal framework, raising awareness of all election actors including voters, nomination and registration of candidates to municipality membership, facilitating pre-election campaign on equal conditions, free access for observers and media representatives to be engaged independently and all other steps were put forward in comply with the "Calendar Plan for basic activities and measures on the preparation and conduct of Municipal Elections”, compiled and approved by CEC.

In general, the Municipal Elections were conducted on 5015 polling stations of 118 election constituencies out of 125 due to impossibility of holding the Municipal Elections on 7 election constituencies covering the regions, the territories of which were occupied by Armenia. 37077 candidacies were registered to 15035 municipality membership and all the candidates were provided with equal conditions and opportunities during pre-election campaign. All the appeals regarding the Municipal Elections were discussed by the Commission members and relevant decisions were adopted upon including the appeals at the session agenda once they had been investigated thoroughly and fairly to ensure citizens’ election rights further.

Alongside with other mediums to ensure transparency in elections, webcams which allow to monitor the voting process lively were installed in 1000 polling stations (nearly 20% of the polling stations where elections are conducted), which covered the whole country geography excluding the territories under occupation. Internet users were able to monitor all the processes on the voting day in polling stations lively through the CEC website without any registration either within the country or outside the country.

More than 50000 observers representing different political parties, registered candidates, non-governmental organizations, also those who joined the elections on their own initiatives, as well as, local and foreign media representatives who functioned in the republic observed the elections independently and freely. The votes were being counted incessantly after the voting ended on Election Day, preliminary results and protocol information on more than 70% of polling stations were posted in an operative manner on the CEC website in the first half of the next day to make the publicity familiar with the election returns. The final protocols on voting results and other election documents were delivered to Constituency Election Commissions by Precinct Election Commissions and to CEC by the Con.ECs within the period defined by law.

Voters expressed their will in free and independent manner by coming to polling stations in the Municipal Elections and generally, 38,92% of the voters’ total number on the country participated in the voting.

During the discussion by the Commission members the Municipal Elections of December 23, 2014 were noted to be valid and conducted in comply with the Constitution, Election Code and other legislation acts of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, decisions were adopted to annul the voting results in 43 polling stations, regarding the elections on 8 municipalities as invalid, considering the formation of all 1599 municipality members in full composition where general election results had been officially approved and declaration of a list of the elected municipality members.

Shabran-Siyazan Con.EC # 54, Masalli city Con.EC # 70 and Lankaran-Masalli Con.EC # 75, as well as, PECs of 5 polling stations the results of which had been considered invalid because of different reasons were dismissed due to the mistakes allowed by them during the preparation, conduct of elections and determination of results.

At the end the Central Election Commission compiled a final protocol on the general election results of the Municipal Elections and the protocol was approved upon being signed by the Commission members.

Representatives of international organizations, foreign agencies and mass media also took part at the session.

Media and Public relations department
CEC Secretariat