Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) —  Voting in Azerbaijan’s snap parliamentary elections has concluded, and the vote counting has begun, according to a correspondent from RIA Novosti. Polling stations closed at 7:00 PM local time (6:00 PM Moscow time).

The early parliamentary elections were held on Sunday, with voting starting at 8:00 AM local time. A total of 6,421,960 voters were eligible to participate in the elections, with 990 candidates vying for 125 parliamentary seats.

Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) accredited 111,200 local observers to monitor the elections. Additionally, 267 international observers from 46 countries and 29 international organizations, including the OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE PA, TurkPA, and CIS PA, were present to oversee the elections. Among the international observers were representatives from the parliaments of Russia, Turkey, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, as well as from GUAM and BSEC organizations.

According to Azerbaijani law, parliamentary elections are typically held on the first Sunday of November. However, this year’s elections were moved to the first day of September. Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Sahiba Gafarova explained that the change was due to important events scheduled for November 2024, such as COP29. As a result, it was decided to hold the elections earlier to ensure the parliament could fully function during these events.