Court of Appeal Refuses to Consider General's Complaint (updated)

Baku / 13.01.19 / Turan: The Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) refused to consider the complaint of General Gabil Mammadov against the CEC of Azerbaijan.

The complaint was related to the decision of the 73rd Lankaran constituency to deny registration as a candidate for deputy, which the CEC upheld.

BCA explained its refusal, referring to the fact that the Shirvan Court of Appeal should consider this issue territorially.

Mammadov does not agree with these arguments, for he appealed against the actions of the CEC, which is located in Baku. He intends to file a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan. –021D-

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2020 January 13 (Monday) 13:43:09

Head of CEC Acknowledges Mistakes of His Subordinates, but Does Nothing to Correct Them

Baku / 13.01.20 / Turan: Independent candidate for deputy in the 73rd Lankaran constituency, general of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan in the reserve Gabil Mammadov announced falsifications and forgery of state structures of Lankaran in order to prevent him from participating in parliamentary elections on February 9.

So, on January 2, the 73rd District Electoral Commission (DEC) of Lankaran refused to register Mammadov, stating that he hid information from the DEC about the availability of property in the form of five cars and 2 hectares of land.

At the same time, the DEC referred to certificates submitted by the head of the Lankaran Police Department, Fagan Azadaliev, and the head of the regional department of the Lankaran State Registry Service, Etibar Gasimov.

However, these “documents” were refuted by certificates submitted by the deputy chief of the Traffic Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan Ilham Rajabov and the deputy head of the State Register Service of Azerbaijan Elshad Mammadov.

On the basis of these documents, the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan on January 10 decided to exclude items from the decision of the 73rd DEC on the availability of 5 cars and 2 hectares of land at Gabil Mammadov.

At the same time, the head of the CEC decided to uphold the decision to refuse registration.

The specific reason for the refusal is not indicated, however, the decision says there are 17 signatures in the signature sheet of Gabil Mammadov, which cause “suspicion”.

It would seem that Mazahir Panahov should have ordered the double-checking of the suspicious signatures, but he considered it sufficient to uphold the refusal. Moreover, he did not give an assessment of the actions of officials who submitted false documents to the CEC.

According to Gabil Mammadov himself, there is an outright falsification in order to prevent him from participating in the elections. He sees what is happening as a compromise of the reforms announced by the head of state to improve the atmosphere in society, ensuring the rule of law and justice in the country.

In connection with the violation of his rights, Gabil Mammadov filed an appeal to the court, the first meeting of which is scheduled for 16 hours on January 13. At the same time, he turned to the prosecutor’s office of Lankaran with a request to investigate the facts of falsifications committed by local officials. -02B-