The incumbent President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, raced toward a landslide victory in presidential election last week, has been officially declared a winner by garnering 86.02 per cent of total votes. The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan on Monday announced official results of presidential election held on April 11 and said under requirements of the Electoral Code, it has made a decision on submitting a protocol on results along with other relevant documents to Constitutional Court of Republic of Azerbaijan. The Chairman of CEC, Mazahir Panahov said no violations that could seriously affect election results were registered and no decisions that would change leading candidate’s status were taken. The final protocol of CEC revealed that 74.3 per cent of total voters cast their votes in election and 12,403 votes were announced as invalid. The Constitutional Court shall approve results of the presidential election within 14 days after election day. As per official results, the incumbent president and Chairman of New Azerbaijan Party Ilham Aliyev, 56, who has been leading Azerbaijan since 2003 garnered 86.02 percent of votes, Chairman of Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party, Araz Alizada garnered 1.38 per cent of votes, Chairman of Modern Musavat Party, Hafiz Hajiyev 1.52 per cent votes, Chairman of Popular Front Party of Whole Azerbaijan, Gudrat Hasanguliyev 3.02 per cent votes, Chairman of National Revival Movement Party, Faraj Guliyev 1.17 per cent votes, Chairman of Azerbaijan Democratic Party Sardar Jalaloglu 3.03 per cent votes, Razi Nurullayev nominated by Frontists Initiative Group 0.74 per cent votes while self-nominee Zahid Oruj secured 3.12 per cent votes in the election. Around 5.314 million registered voters of oil-rich Caspian Sea country used their right to vote in election and elected their next president for seven years. The CEC made elaborate arrangements including installation of 1,000 Web cameras, setting up of polling stations in missions of Azerbaijan abroad to conduct election in a free and transparent manner. There existed 125 constituencies and the Commission had established 5641 polling stations, of which 215 were temporary while 41 were set-up in foreign countries to facilitate Azerbaijani expatriates. Eight candidates including incumbent President Ilham were contesting for the slot. Moreover, the CEC also accredited 890 international and 58,175 domestic observers to monitor presidential election. The international observers represented 59 countries and 60 organizations including the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), PACE, CIS who were present in Azerbaijan for monitoring. APP’s correspondent, who also visited Baku to cover the election, visited different polling stations and it had been witnessed that people were standing in queues and waiting for their turn to cast votes on election day. Eligible voters who came to cast their votes told APP that they were more than satisfied with policies of incumbent president and their country was progressing well under his leadership. The on duty staff of election commission at every polling station highlighted the arrangements made to facilitate the voters and ensure fair and transparent voting process. Majority of Azerbaijanis appreciated Ilham Aliyev, who through his wise policies put the country on path of development as huge foreign investment, especially in oil and gas sector was coming in the country. “We have tried our best and made elaborate arrangements to conduct election in a free and transparent manner,” Mazahir Panahov said. He said opportunities had also been provided for visually and physically disabled voters. Since 2003, the CEC had been using special stencils with all information of ballot paper in Braille alphabet for fully or partially visually disabled people and that facility was available in presidential elections too. He said mobile ramps were used for the voters with mobility impairment to come to the polling station and vote. The ramps also facilitated the persons using wheelchair. Moreover, pursuant to Election Code, it had been ensured for the voters, who could not come to polling station on election-day due to their health reasons, to vote at home by mobile ballot boxes, Mazahir said. He also shed light on holding awareness-raising activities as the Commission prepared education programmes in 18 spheres and implemented large-scale projects on a regular basis for different participants of election process. Replying to question, he said as in previous years, during current presidential election awareness-raising of lower election commissions had been focused and a training project in two stages was implemented. The Commission, he said, also focused on voter education and many projects were carried out in that regard. It held intensive campaign process in different ways for voters to check their entries in voters list, usage of de-registration card in presidential elections, as well as calling to elections and cooperated in this field with media closely. Answering another question, he said all relevant bodies led by the CEC had implemented necessary activities to ensure transparency. The practice of using webcams, which had been applied in the country since 2008, allowed monitoring of the voting process in current election. Webcams had been installed in 1000 polling stations and covered the whole territory of the country. Internet users, he said, were able to observe voting process, vote counting and tabulation incessantly and live upon the access to CEC website without any requirement of registration either within the country or abroad. Meanwhile, Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan termed the election held as democratically, transparently and in line with country’s electoral legislation. The Association conducted a monitoring of presidential election in Azerbaijan with 4,000 observers. It said as per monitoring results, no serious violations have been registered during the election process. The election process ended in time, at 7.00 p.m and counting of votes was conducted in line with requirements of the Electoral Code, and all the conditions were created for observers to monitor the process, the Association said. Published in Daily Times, April 18th 2018.