Turnout in one constituency tops 50 per cent, but voter apathy in Azeri capital
Excerpt from report by Azerbaijani TV on 7 January

[Presenter in studio] By-elections to the Milli Maclis are being held today and the Election Information Centre is constantly receiving news from constituency commissions about the process of the by-elections to the Milli Maclis. We are now going over live to the Election Information Centre. Esmira xanim [form of address]! We are listening to you. Please give our viewers the latest news for this hour.

[Reporter] It is clear, Afaq xanim. We have a lot of information again for this hour. We are constantly providing you with urgent live reports from the Election Information Centre. Some time ago, about two hours ago, we gave you information for 1000 [0600] at 1200 [0800 gmt]. Now at 1400 [1000 gmt] Iqbal Babayev, director of the Election Information Centre, will give you information for 1200. Iqbal muallim [form of address], what is the situation?

[Babayev] According to the information for 1200, general information from constituencies has been coming in. At present, information from 15 or 20 minutes ago is coming in from polling stations where electronic voting is taking place. [Passage omitted: About electronic voting]

[Reporter] Is this information for 1200?

[Babayev] No, this is information coming from computerized polling stations.

  [Reporter] From 15-20 minutes ago.

[Babayev] This information came in 15-20 minutes ago. Here is information from the first Sumqayit constituency No 38, polling station 21 - 342 people have voted.

[Reporter] We should remind our viewers that electronic voting is only taking place in one polling station in the 11 constituencies.

[Babayev] Only in Yasamal - [there is electronic voting] in three polling stations. So 342 people have voted in polling station 21 in the first Sumqayit constituency No 38, which accounts for 40.3 per cent.

In polling station 22 in Agsu-Kurdamir constituency No 51, 307 people have voted, which accounts for 46 per cent. In polling station 38 in Astara constituency No 53, 538 people have voted, which accounts for 51.8 per cent. In polling station 34 in Barda constituency No 56, 446 people have voted, which accounts for 37.3 per cent. Some 443 people have voted electronically in polling station 6 in Qusar constituency No 65, which accounts for 33.4 per cent. In polling station 11 in Imisli constituency No 68, 222 people have voted, which accounts for 26.8 per cent. In polling station 24 in Haciqabul-Salyan constituency No 94, 393 people have voted, which accounts for 28.2 per cent. In polling station 32 in Samkir town constituency No 99, 321 people have voted, which accounts for 39.7 per cent. In polling station 5 in the second Yasamal constituency No 7, 430 people have voted, which accounts for 29.1 per cent. In the same constituency, in polling station 20 in the second Yasamal constituency, 149 people have voted, which accounts for 14.5 per cent. In polling station 30 in the second Yasamal polling station, 247 people have voted, which accounts for 16.3 per cent. In polling station 14 in the first Xatai constituency No 9, 204 people have voted, which accounts for 17.5 per cent. In polling station 21 in the second Xatai constituency No 10, 147 people have voted, which accounts for 12.9 per cent.

[Reporter] That is how the vote is going in the computerized polling stations. We should remind you again that repeat elections are taking place in 11 constituencies today because on the basis of the results of the 5 November by-elections, the results of the elections were annulled in these constituencies by the Central Electoral Commission and Constitutional Court. [Passage omitted: more on electronic voting]

Now we shall give you some information about the constituencies. Some time ago, Iqbal muallim, I had a look at this monitor and, if you remember, we reported the information for 1000 at 1200.

[Babayev] Yes.

[Reporter] When I looked at the information for this hour a few minutes ago, I saw there was a great difference in the voting process. I would like you to give the information for 1200, and I will give the information for 1000 so that our viewers can see the difference clearly.

[Babayev] In the second Yasamal constituency, 13.07 per cent have voted.

[Reporter] That is the information for 1200, and the information for 1000 was 5.49 per cent.

[Babayev] In the first Xatai constituency, 9.66 per cent.

[Reporter] According to the information for 1000, it was 3.1 per cent.

[Babayev] In the second Xatai constituency, 14.81 per cent.

[Reporter] There is a big difference here because the figure for 1000 was 2.03 per cent.

[Babayev] In the first Sumqayit constituency, 27.95 per cent.

[Reporter] It was 2.99 per cent at 1000.

[Babayev] Agsu-Kurdamir, 29.07 per cent.

[Reporter] 16.65 per cent at 1000.

[Babayev] In Astara constituency, 53.13 per cent.

[Reporter] There is a big difference here. According to the information for 1000, it was 26.96 per cent. But when we looked at this half an hour ago, we saw that it was much lower than 50 per cent. There has been such a sharp increase in a short time.

[Babayev] In Barda town constituency, it was 27.68 per cent.

[Reporter] This is the information for 1200. As for the information for 1000, it was 7.65 per cent.

[Babayev] In the Qusar constituency, 32.6 per cent have voted.

[Reporter] Here's the information for 1000. The figure was 14.2 per cent.

[Babayev] In the Imisli constituency, 19.73 per cent have voted.

[Reporter] There is no significant difference here.

[Babayev] In the Haciqabul-Salyan constituency, 29.26 per cent have voted.

[Reporter] At 1200, this figure was 17.35 per cent.

[Babayev] And here's Samkir town constituency No 99. Some 21.19 per cent have voted.

[Reporter] By 1000, only 7.34 per cent of the voters had voted.

[Passage omitted: more people voting in the afternoon]

Source: Azerbaijani TV, Channel One, Baku, in Azeri 1000 gmt 7 Jan 01

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Posted January 11, 2001 © Eurasianet
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