Azerbaijani experts claim violations of democratic norms at parliamentary elections

The elections to the National Assembly of Azerbaijan were held against the background of human rights violations and criminal proceedings against public activists. Besides, the parliamentary elections were accompanied by massive violations of the electoral law. Such elections cannot be considered free, fair and reflecting the decision of the society. This was stated by participants of the roundtable on the theme "Human rights situation in the election year".

On November 10, the roundtable was held at the office of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly (ANC HCA). It was organized by the Committee to Protect Civil Society (KZGO) of Azerbaijan.

When opening the meeting, Arzu Abdullaeva, a coordinator of the KZGO, has noted "the steady deterioration of the human rights situation in Azerbaijan in the recent decade."

Akif Gurbanov, a member of the Central Election Commission (CEC), the leader of the Institute for Democratic Initiative (IDI), has delivered a report on the parliamentary elections in the context of human rights.

He has emphasized that during the elections, a number of organizations were deprived of opportunities for independent monitoring. Akif Gurbanov has also noted that members of the oppositional political forces had no opportunities to conduct a full-fledged pre-election campaign.

Mekhman Aliev, Director of the news agency "Turan", has delivered a report "Position of the media in the course of the elections". He has emphasized that during the months preceding the elections, there was an increase of pressure on the media resources representing alternative views and conducting journalistic investigations. Among the media subjected to the increased pressure, Mekhman Aliev mentioned the Radio Liberty, the online resource "Meydan.Tv", and the TV show "Azerbaijani Hour". Meanwhile, according to him, the state-controlled media (almost 99% of the media) have acted as a propaganda tool.

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