First stage of election campaign did not meet international standards

Baku/16.09.13/Turan : Two local NGO - Centre for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Training (CMEDT) and the Public Association for International Cooperation Volunteers (PAICV ) on September 16 issued a joint interim report of the results of long-term observation of the presidential election on October 9. The study covers the start of the election campaign , nomination and approval of candidates , collecting signatures and registration as well as the activities of election commissions at all levels .

The monitoring covered 189 of the 125 constituencies . The source of the information from the study were 32 local places of long-term observers , electoral candidates' headquarters , and information from the citizens themselves through the portal of the "Public observation of elections."

As the Executive Secretary of CMEDT, Bashir Suleymanli said, in the current campaign , compared to the previous elections , less pressure is noted on citizens in the course of collecting signatures , but administrative resources are still used in support of President Ilham Aliyev.

On the other hand, the campaign is carried out in a relaxed fit and is practically invisible to the general public.

There was an active campaign to collect signatures in support of only Jamil Hasanly , Ilgar Mammadov, Iqbal Aghazadeh , Ali Aliyev , Arastun Orujlu and Gudrat Hasanguliyev.

In favor of Aliyev signatures were collected in closed institutions - public buildings.

In areas of the country were marked facts of mass collection of identity cards from employees of schools and their transfer of them to the executive power.

This process involved heads of village administration and municipalities .

Direct evidence of bribery of voters is not fixed, but in some cases they were promised a solution to certain problems .

As the head of CMEDT Anar Mammadov said , the lack of large-scale violations should not be taken as

compliance campaign national legislation and international democratic standards.

Over the last five years the period of the election campaign has been reduced from 120 to 60 days , which means haste and makes it difficult for candidates.

So, because of man-made obstacles , signatures in favor of Ilgar Mamedov were collected for only 12 days.

"If he had been registered before, then he would have arranged the campaign on a higher level", said Mammadov .

In addition, the campaign was preceded by a process of tightening conditions in the country with the implementation of the freedom of assembly , expression and association.

The expert also noted that the CEC for doubtful grounds denied registration of four people as presidential candidates.

As for the candidate Rustam Ibrahimbayov, he was the only candidate who had not been given subscription lists. Mammadov said that CMEDT is studying the details of this very controversial issue .

Finally CMEDT made ??a number of recommendations:

In order to increase public interest and the credibility of the elections it is offered to fully ensure freedom of assembly, expression and association, the release of all those arrested this year, including young political activists , to ensure transparency precinct and district election commissions , to punish officials who interfered in the process of collecting signatures, to conduct a fair investigation of complaints of candidates who were denied registration , etc.

As the head of PAICV, Elnur Mammadov said , another interim report will be distributed on the results of monitoring the campaign , and after the elections there will be preliminary and final summary reports . -06C-