Authorities send oppositionists to protest in Baku suburb

The Baku authorities refused to sanction a rally in central Baku of those who disagree with the outcomes of the recent parliamentary elections and offered the organizers to hold it in the dwelling settlement of Lokbatan located in a suburb of the capital.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) had announced the victory of the ruling "Eni Azerbaijan" Party at the February 9 parliamentary elections. In its turn, the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) of Azerbaijan has stated that the elections had passed in an atmosphere of "mass falsifications."

Ruslan Izzetli, the chairman of the D18 movement, treats the refusal to sanction the rally in the place proposed by the organizers as a violation of the freedom of assembly.

"If they failed to sanction a rally at the metro station, they should have suggested an adequate alternative. However, we are offered to go to Lokbatan that is 20 km from Baku," he has stated.

"At all the polling station, there were ballot box stuffing, 'carousels' and pressure on observers. The voter turnout was overestimated by several times. The vote tabulation was accompanied by violations," Mr Izzetli has stated.

Faradj Kerimli, another organizer of the rally and deputy chairman of the "Musavat" Party, believes that "the outcomes of the elections should be cancelled, and new ones appointed," because "the scale of the frauds throughout the country was huge."

"There is a lot of proofs of violations in social networks: ballot throws-in, issuance of ballot papers to alien persons, expulsions and beatings of observers, the addition of pre-prepared ballot papers at vote tabulation," Mr Kerimli has stated.