Azerbaijan has no conditions for holding free elections

Today, the Landmark Business Centre in Baku hosted a roundtable on the topic "Analysis of Electoral Legislation: International Norms, Problems and Prospects". The event was organized by the non-governmental Institute of Democratic Initiatives (IDI), the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

"In fact, Azerbaijan faces a threat of disappearance of elections as an institution that provides for the formation of branches of power based on the free will of people. With each election, the political forces and the broad public are losing confidence in elections as a democratic process," the lawyer Alesker Mamedli said during the roundtable.

The lawyer Samed Ragimli told the audience about the cases, when the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) confirmed violations of electoral rights in Azerbaijan. The government fails to execute the decisions of the ECtHR that concern the deficiencies of the electoral system, just resorting to payment of appointed fines, said Ragimli.

The deteriorating situation with the observance of democratic standards at elections was also stated in his presentation by Djamil Gasanli, the Chairman of the National Council of Democratic Forces.

One of the major problems of elections in Azerbaijan is the absence of partisan democracy, said Fazil Gazanfaroglu, an MP and the head of the "Great Creation" Party. According to his story, there are no conditions in the country for the progress of independent political parties.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.