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OSCE election observation mission releases interim report on upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan

17 September 2013 08:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has released its Interim Report No. 1 on the upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani Central Election Commission told APA that the reports cover some statements on the preparations for the elections. The Commission noted the followings:
“As regards the statement that no women have been nominated, we want to say that gender equality was provided by Article 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Women are widely represented in the parliament, government and judicial authorities. All conditions have been created for women to use their passive suffrage in elections. It is at least incomprehensible that the report emphasizes that women have not used these opportunities. Moreover, there are a lot of European countries, which have never had female leaders.

Regarding the statement “The Election Code was last amended with the exception of reducing the complaint adjudication period, no other OSCE/ODIHR previous recommendations have been addressed in the amendments to the law since the 2010 parliamentary elections”, we want to note that 12 of 17 recommendations were adopted in 2010. The CEC chairman informed Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Mr. Janez LenarÄiÄ in this regard on August 12.

As regards the formula for composition of election commissions, we would like to say that election commissions were formed basing on equal representation of the opposition and ruling parties in the parliament in full compliance with the OSCE /ODIHR recommendations in 2000 in the history of Azerbaijan. The current opposition parties used this parity to boycott the work of the CEC. The CEC members couldn’t pass relevant decisions at times fixed by law due to the absence of the quorum required by law and the CEC was paralyzed. Though the opposition leaders received letters from former Director of the OSCE / ODIHR Gérard Stoudmann to take constructive attitude, boycott is lasting and danger of violation of the terms fixed by the Constitution was emerged. Then the Azerbaijani Parliament has then upgraded the formula for composition of election commissions.

Touching on the statement regarding government’s control over all television stations with nationwide coverage, we would like to inform election observation mission that there is one state TV channel, one public TV channel and 33 private TV channels (5 state-level, 14 regional and 14 cable) in Azerbaijan. We want the facts or the names of laws giving ground for this conclusion to be submitted to the CEC.