Jamil Hasanli: The people of Azerbaijan boycotted the elections

In an interview with “Voice of America”, Chairman of the National Council of Democratic Forces Jamil Hasanli commented on the critical assessments of the OSCE Observation Mission following the results of the early parliamentary elections. According to him, the preliminary conclusion does not just reflect reality, but a fairly complete document. The only organization with a mandate to monitor elections in Europe is the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. They have prepared a full-fledged document in a few weeks. However, the violations in the elections were much deeper than the OSCE can imagine, Hasanli noted.

When asked why the National Council of Democratic Forces boycotted the elections, he said that the elections were boycotted not by the National Council, but by the people of Azerbaijan.  Even according to the CEC, the turnout was only 37% - the lowest figure in all elections. "The elections on September 1 are unconstitutional, because the president cannot call early elections whenever he wants. The appointment of early elections is determined by Article 98.1 of the Constitution. None of the cases mentioned there took place, and the reference to the COP 29 conference cannot be the basis for calling early elections," Hasanli said.

In his opinion, the formation of such a parliament makes it impossible for Azerbaijan to return to the Council of Europe. The authorities deliberately arrested dozens of journalists and civil society activists so that they would not expose the fraud in these elections.

The arrests of Anar Mammadli, Akif Gurbanov, Alesker Mammadli, Ruslan Izzatli, as well as journalists from “Toplum TV”,  “Abzas Media”, and “Channel 13” were a pre–election preventive measure. "Ilham Aliyev decided to hold elections without a headache. That is why so many people were arrested on trumped-up charges," Jamil Hasanli said.