• Azerbaijan’s Ruling Party Seen Easily Winning Election - The New York Times
    http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/11/01/world/europe/01reuters-azerbaijan-election.html

    Azeri voters headed to the polls on Sunday for a parliamentary election which Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling party is widely expected to win, and which mainstream opposition and international monitors are shunning.
    […]
    We got 71 (out of 125) seats at the previous election and we have every chance to repeat that victory this time,” Ali Akhmedov, the executive secretary of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) Party, said.

    The mainstream opposition in Azerbaijan, a mainly Muslim country of about 9 million people between Iran, Russia and Turkey, is boycotting the poll.

    The pre-election period was marred by massive violations. That’s why we decided not to participate,” opposition Musavat Party leader, Arif Gajily, told Reuters.
    […]
    The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said it would not monitor the election because restrictions imposed on it by the authorities made credible poll monitoring impossible.
    […]
    Some foreign journalists, including reporters from Reuters, were not issued with accreditation to cover the election. The foreign ministry cited technical difficulties.