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Azerbaijani Presidentâ€™s Press Secretary Azer Gasimov: â€œThe reaction of the US is nonobjective and biasedâ€

11 October 2013 12:45 (UTC +04:00)

I want to say that the non-objective and biased statement of the Department of State is a document not based on reality,” said Press Secretary of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Azer Guliyev in his response to APA’s questionnaire about the statement of the U.S. Department of State on the Azerbaijani presidential elections.

Gasimov said that this statement has been made basing on the report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR): “First of all, I would like to note that ODIHR is a consultative body. Its decisions and reports are non-binding. The statement of the State Department basing on the report of such an organization is not understandable. A number of observation missions from various countries, influential international organizations, including the European Parliament, Council of Europe, CIS, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and others observed the presidential elections in our country. All of them have positive opinion that the elections have been transparent, fair and democratic. I would like to emphasize that a number of U.S. senators and congressmen share these opinions. But these opinions have not been taken into the account in the statement of the Department of State, which refers to the OSCE and its report. In connection with non-objective assessment of the State Department, I want to note that Azerbaijan regained its independence 20 years ago. Democratic institutions have been established in our country in this short period of time, significant steps have been taken to ensure fair elections and other democratic principles at all levels. However, there are serious problems in the electoral system and the election process of the U.S. with more than 200 years of democratic development. By the way, I want to note that the U.S. hasn’t fully developed a legislative mechanism of the election system up to now.

A large number of observers, who participated in the presidential elections in the United States in 2004, most of whom were the OSCE observers, detected negative cases that the U.S. hadn’t completed reforming the election process since 2002. Ballot papers are counted manually, machines that do not allow checking them are used, it is allowed sending the filled ballot papers to polling stations via fax, there are different voting procedures not only in different states, but also within a state. Security measures are tightened at polling stations.

According to the OSCE observers, the fact that absentee ballots account for almost 20 percent of all votes in the U.S. is a flagrant violation of Paragraph #21of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ensuring the “secret ballot” principle.

According to the opinion of the observers, the US election system has become morally old. In the presidential elections in 2000 there were cases of vote counting with fingers.

As you know, there is no experience of direct voting in the US, the voting is carried out by the Electoral College, this causes serious problems. The candidates’ rights to address the TV debates are not ensured fully. Major TV debates are held between the candidates of only two parties. Millions of Americans’ votes are not taken into account due to the weakness of registration of candidates in the US. In the recent elections not only the observers of the two parties, but also independent observers faced problems in entering polling stations.

According to the new practice in the US election system, the persons not included into the voters’ lists in advance face problems in getting “temporary” ballot papers. In a number of states of the US international observers may face criminal prosecution if they come to the polling stations.

I want to reiterate that the statement of the US Department of State on the presidential elections in Azerbaijan is nonobjective and biased.”