MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. /TASS/. Sunday’s early parliamentary polls in Azerbaijan were fair and open, with practically no violations reported during the voting, Leonid Kalashnikov, who led the Russian State Duma’s delegation of observers, said on Sunday.

"The elections are valid. The voting was really open, fair, free, and democratic," Kalashnikov, who is chairman of the State Duma’s committee for the affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots, said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

According to the Russian lawmaker, eleven candidates are vying for each parliamentary seat. "I visited about ten polling stations today. I spoke with observers. Practically no violations were reported," he said.

The polling stations across Azerbaijan closed at 7 p.m. local time. The voter turnout as of 5 p.m. was 44.84%

The early parliamentary polls in Azerbaijan were held on the basis of majority voting in single-mandate constituencies. A total of 1,314 candidates are vying for 125 seats in Azerbaijan’s parliament. Eleven of them were nominated by voter groups, 246 by 19 political parties and 1,057 were self-nominated. Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan have been held under the majority system in single-seat constituencies since 2005. As many as 883 observers representing 59 international organizations were accredited for the polls.