OSCE/ODIHR issues unfavourable report situation prior to election in Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR) published an interim report on situation prior to November 7 Azerbaijan Parliamentary Elections 2010.

As the report states, the Election Code was recently amended, in June 2010. Several recommendations previously offered by the OSCE/ODIHR remain unaddressed.

The current formula for the composition of election commissions remains contentious. The CEC is very active in making preparations for these elections. It has launched an extensive voter education campaign and has conducted training for lower-level commissions. Central Election Commission (CEC) sessions are open to the media and observers. However, CEC members are often not provided with all draft decisions and necessary documents before a session.

All main political parties are participating in these elections. Some 1,400 prospective candidates were nominated. Of these, around 1,100 submitted the documentation required for registration. The ConECs reviewed all applications and registered 704 candidates by the legal deadline of 14 October. There is a marked discrepancy between the number of candidates who were registered from the ruling party, opposition and independent nominations. The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission received several reports alleging pressure on and intimidation of candidates, their representatives, and voters.

While there are several television stations with nationwide coverage, citizens have very limited access to diverse political views in the broadcast media. The CEC adopted a decision according to which each candidate will receive four minutes of free airtime in the framework of regular daily roundtable discussions on public TV and also free space in state-funded newspapers. Only two national TV channels announced that they will offer airtime for paid political spots.

The upcoming elections are taking place in a political environment characterized by a lack of dialogue between the ruling party and the main opposition parties despite efforts made by the OSCE Office in Baku to promote such a dialogue. The results of the 2005 parliamentary elections were not accepted by some opposition parties, which in protest subsequently boycotted the partial repeat parliamentary elections in May 2006 and the October 2008 presidential election. This time, all main opposition parties have decided to participate in these elections. Freedom of assembly remains very limited in practice: despite the adoption of the Law on Freedom of Assembly in 2008, the Baku executive authorities routinely deny requests to hold political rallies and meetings in central locations.

The OSCE/ODIHR EOM has received several reports about alleged intimidation of opposition and independent candidates and their authorized representatives by employees of the local executive authorities. It also received reports of cases where voters who signed candidates’ signature sheets asked to recall their signatures, allegedly after being told to do so by local executive authorities.

The election campaign period was significantly reduced in comparison to previous parliamentary elections was criticized by most opposition parties. Many candidates expressed their concerns regarding the lack of time to conduct a proper election campaign in their constituencies.

While there are several television stations with national coverage in Azerbaijan, citizens have very limited access to diverse political views in the broadcast media. This is most importantly due to a de facto government monopoly on television, with all national TV channels – including the state broadcaster AzTV and the public broadcaster ITV – presenting mainly the activities of the authorities and rarely showing opposition leaders and their views. The print media is more diverse, with some opposition-oriented or independent newspapers. However, these have low circulation figures and are not widely available in the regions.

The media situation is further exacerbated by detentions, defamation lawsuits and other forms of pressure on journalists which affect freedom of expression. A newspaper editor, Eynulla Fatullayev, and two internet bloggers, Emin Abdullayev and Adnan Hajizade, remain in prison despite numerous calls by domestic and international organizations for their release.

One of the largest domestic observer organizations, the Election Monitoring Center (EMC), was deregistered as an NGO on 14 May 2008 by a district court at the request of the Ministry of Justice, OSCE/ODIHR official website reported.