Rivals Cast Doubt on Election Law

By Nemet Orujov

Safa Mirzayev, the head of the Parliamentary Apparatus, does not believe the Central Election Commission should be reformed

The government of Azerbaijan is moving ahead with plans for its election on Oct. 15, but opposition candidates already are casting doubt on its fairness.

Taliyat Aliyev, Deputy Chair on election issues of the Democratic Party, says that no single fair election has been held in Azerbaijan over the last 15 years. “On the contrary, there was election fraud and people were disillusioned by elections. The victory of the opposition parties in the elections has not been recognized by the government. The government has no political will to hold free and fair elections.”

The chairman of Social Democratic Party, Araz Alizade, whose nomination was not registered during the 2003 presidential elections over charges that his signature had been fabricated, thinks that in order to hold free and fair elections in 2008 the election code should be modified.

“I believe that the election commission should be composed of representatives of the nominees. Free and fair elections are very important in Azerbaijan,” Alizade said.

The OSCE Election Observation Mission, in its report, said that the 2003 presidential elections, in which Alizade was not allowed to participate, lacked compliance with international standards and the commitments the country agreed to before the elections. Currently, OSCE’s Venice Commission and the Organization for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights are engaged in negotiations with the government of Azerbaijan on changes to the election code to improve the legal framework of the election process. The Venice Commission, a joint commission of the OSCE and the Council of Europe, suggests that the composition of the current election commission be changed to include equal representation of political parties in the commission during elections.

In line with the requirements of the election code, there are 18 members of the Central Election Commission (CES), out of which six are supposed to be neutral, six support the ruling New Azerbaijan party and its policy with the remainder representing the opposition parties.

A protest in Baku in November 2005 triggered by claims the Parliamentary election was not free and fair

Anar Mammadli, the Director of the Election Monitoring Center, a local NGO, said he believes that currently CES, district and precinct election commissions do not work as effectively or objectively as they should.

“So far, the experience shows that the independents and the ruling party representatives always support their interests. They can always enforce the adoption of decisions they want. This in turn leads to undesired developments during the election time,” Mammadli said.

Mammadli points to the 2005 parliamentary elections as an example. “According to the protocol of the #9 district election commission, the representative of the opposition Azadliq block gained the majority of votes during those elections. However, CES annulled that protocol,” he said.

The head of the executive apparatus of the Musavat party, Arif Hajili said he believes the democratization of the election code is a priority issue for political parties. “The code must be improved and the election commission should be fairly composed of interested parties. The current election code sometimes creates problems for the nominees themselves and as a result they do not get registered,” he said.

In 2003, for example, three candidates didn’t get registered. One of these candidates, Eldar Namazov, head of the Public Forum for Azerbaijan, was disqualified because he did not include his representative’s work phone number on his registration papers. The six members of the election commission that are nominated by the government voted to disqualify Namazov. The opposition members of the commission objected to that decision but the supposedly neutral members agreed with the government position.

The chair of the Azerbaijani Popular Front, Ali Karimli said that if the election code is not substantially modified, then voting in the elections will only legitimize the government. He added, the election code must be fair, if the country is to become democratic. “This requires political will. However, the government has yet to show such a political will. The election commission should be formed on the grounds of parity, as required by international organizations and opposition parties. In this way, we could prevent legitimization of election fraud,” Karimli said.

Taliyat Aliyev, Deputy Chair on election issues of the Democratic Party, believes that the election code should be changed to eliminate fraud. “To resolve this issue in Azerbaijan, the commissions should be free from government control.”

Deputy Executive Secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party and a Member of Parliament, Siyavush Novruzov notes it is impossible to change the election commissions. “I think the current commissions provide for free and fair elections,” the MP said. However, he also mentioned that the party he represents has proposed to shorten the term of the election process. “The time for preparation for the elections and campaign management stretches over a long period. This creates stress in society for a long time,” he said.

The secretary of the Central Election Commission, Natig Mammadov, says his organization doesn’t have the authority to modify the election code. “This Parliament has the authority to change the election code. I think the current legislation enables free and fair elections,” he said.

The chief of the parliamentary apparatus, Safa Mirzayev, said in his interview with the Agency Press Azerbaijan (APA) on Feb. 13 that some technical changes in the law are possible. “Formation of elections commissions on the ground of parity is not important. The important thing is that the current format enables us to hold free and fair elections, and there are no legislative gaps in this area. Therefore, I think there is no need to change and restructure the commissions.”

Rivals Cast Doubt on Election Law

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