ECtHR starts communicating on complaints from Azerbaijan against 2010 parliamentary elections

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has started to communicate with the government of Azerbaijan with regard to 14 complainants who filed complaints against the violation of their rights during the parliamentary elections held on November 7, 2010. This was stated by Natiq Djafarli, one of the complainants, the executive secretary of the civil movement "Republican Alternative" (ReAl).

The complainants' interests at the ECtHR are represented by Intigam Aliev, the leader of the Legal Education Society. According to his story, the complaints of all 14 complainants are associated with the unjustified refusal of the authorities to register them as candidates for deputy.

"In particular, the precinct election commissions 'revealed' invalid signatures of voters completely arbitrary, with no independent examination. This was done for political reasons, to eliminate the strongest opponents of the authorities' candidates," Intigam Aliev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his version, the complaints filed to the ECtHR raise issue of violation of the rights guaranteed by Article 3 (right to free elections) to the Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights.

It should be noted that the joint statement of the international missions of observers from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, PACE and the European Parliament on the results of the held elections has emphasized absence of any meaningful progress in the democratic development of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the missions of observers of the CIS and GUAM have recognized elections in Azerbaijan to be free and democratic.