Observation mission of OSCE/ODIHR gives first assessment of election campaign in Azerbaijan

The forthcoming elections to the National Assembly of Azerbaijan are prepared in the environment characterized by lack of dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition, runs the primary report released today by the Observation Mission of the Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on the status of the pre-election situation in Azerbaijan.

The document received by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from the mission office in Baku gives a brief analysis of the electoral legislation of Azerbaijan. Although in June 2010 amendments were made in the Electoral Code (EC), recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR were not accounted for, including the issues related to a better political balance in election commissions. "The current formula for the composition of election commissions remains controversial," the document says.

Earlier, the OSCE/ODIHR had offered to change the order, when all the election commission were headed by appointees of the ruling party "Eni Azerbaijan" and share these posts on the basis of 1/3 principle. That is, one third of commission heads are appointees of the ruling party, one third are independents and one third - the parliamentary minority.

With regard to the course of the election campaign, the report states "the presence of a significant difference between the numbers of candidates registered from the ruling party and of independents and from the opposition." Citizens' access to information about candidates through TV channels is very limited, despite the presence of several national TV channels, the mission believes.

Observers note that the freedom of assembly remains restricted, despite the law on the freedom of assembly. Executive authorities are routinely rejecting requests to hold political rallies and meetings in central capital, while amendments to the electoral legislation have reduced candidates' freedom in the election campaign, said the OSCE/ODIHR mission.

The mission noted that received reports about intimidation of oppositional and independent candidates and their confidants by local executive authorities. Reports also arrived on pressure on those who had signed-in for the opposition.

The second interim report of the mission will be published in late October.

The press service of the Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) refrained from comments, saying that they had not yet studied the report of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission.