Report of the National Council on the campaign for the presidential elections in Azerbaijan

A single opposition presidential candidate  for presidency in Azerbaijan, Jamil Hasanli,  submitted a report of the National Council of Democratic Forces  (NCDF) for the election campaign for the presidency. The campaign took place in non-democratic conditions with serious legal violations, and abuse of administrative resources. There were cases  of information blockade, military pressure on political opponents of the authorities, intimidation, use of black PR.

The authorities have not fulfilled their obligations to ensure free elections. Previous recommendations of the OSCE ODIHR observation mission undertaken by the monitoring results of the parliamentary elections of 2010 were ignored by the authorities.

In 2009, during the March referendum, the authorities have made anti-democratic amendments to the Constitution, which eliminated restrictions for the election of one person for two terms.

The nomination of Ilham Aliyev in this election is contrary to the law and makes his participation illegitimate, as Aliyev made ​​changes to the constitution after his second election in 2008, the report noted. 

Despite the repeated efforts of the democratic forces, the authorities have not improved the legislation, and but rather contributed to the Electoral Code of the reactionary changes that have forged the current format of election commissions, as well as the limited time frame of the campaign.

Formation of the Central Election Commission (CEC), 125 district and 5,300 Precinct Election Commissions do not meet the realities of the day, because the opposition have not been represented, which has a significant social base.

According to the  election commission,  the three levels of election commissions  have been formed by 70 % of the representatives of the ruling party "Yeni Azerbaijan", and the rest  is represented in parliament  by so-called "constructive opposition" and "independent" deputies.

The chairmen of all committees are members of "Yeni Azerbaijan." This format provides the government's control over the electoral process not only on  the Election Day, but also in  advance, prejudging the outcome of the vote by fraud. This undermines the confidence of voters for the elections.

Campaigns of candidates passed in record time, and under the total control of the media by the government, which did not allow the candidate of the opposition to fully implement it due to the following reasons:

-  for the first was canceled public funding for campaigning candidates, and under the total control over financial resources did not give the candidate of the opposition to take advantage of the finances.

Legal requirement for the transferring  money for opposition candidate only on the bank account scares  those who may be subject  to persecution of the authorities. 

- The speech of opposition candidate on TV was limited to six-minute on the so-called presidential debates.

 Overall time of speech was 54 minutes, and 486 minutes for the opponents.

ITV and other channels did not give time for the speech for Hasanly, and a public television channel even refused to allow him to present advertising, commercial time for the speech. There  was not a subject election on TV and radio, and was mostly spent at blackening candidate of the NCDF. 

- So-called "debates" can not be called a debate , because the speech of candidates was only a campaign of attacks and harassment on the part of, at least, seven candidates  on the representative of the  NCDF against  the condoning and even encouraging  of the leader of debates on ITV. 

- Most of the print and online media have provided information support to the president Ilham Aliyev, and purposefully criticized the candidate  of the NCDF. Such position is dictated by their economic and political dependence on the government.

The circulation of the print media is limited. Lawsuits for defamation and other charges do not allow journalists to work freely and express opinions.

Ilham Aliyev took advantage of his status, almost every day appeared on television to open a variety of objects, or issuing orders for the increase of salaries and pensions.

In July -September, he signed 68 orders in the amount of 160.8 million manat , and the majority of these funds were spent on promotion of administrative resources.

On information on the programs of seven channels (AZTV, ATV, ANS, ITV, Linder, Space, Khazar) Ilham Aliyev demonstrated 11 hours and 45 minutes, and the candidate of the opposition, Jamil Hasanly  only 16 minutes.  Aliyev was presented  only  positively, and  J.Hasanly  only negatively.

- All TV channels grossly violated the law "On Television and Radio Broadcasting", which requires that the sociopolitical programs be impartial, unbiased and authentic.

The authorities tried to prevent the elections campaign  of Hasanly using dirty methods.

1. At the "debate" on ITV Hasanly regularly faced  insults and slander  of eight candidates and their representatives, with the exception of the candidate Iqbal Aghazadeh. Hasanly’s complaint to the CEC did not produce  any results.

2. All meetings of Hasanly with voters  were attended by people sent by the authorities  to make a provocation, and the police created a confrontation. Regional authorities intimidated the local population , demanding to abandon participation in the meetings.

3.A number of channels were focused exclusively  on  the black PR against Hasanly .

4. There were numerous cases of failure posters by Hasanly from the boards for candidates in different parts of the country.

There have been numerous documented cases of forced participation in the rally of the candidates by  Ilham Aliyev , Hafiz Hajiyev , Gudrat Hasanguliyev. The meetings with the candidate Igbal Aghazadeh were prevented.

During the election campaign, the authorities stepped up the pressure on civil society through intimidation, arrests and violence.

After the meeting on September 22 , was arrested Turkel Kerimli, the son of the leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan ( PFPA) Ali Kerimli, and two protesters.

An attack was made on a 16-year-old son of a member of the electoral headquarters of the candidate NCDF, Oktay Gyulalyev.

Before the meeting on August 18, was arrested Mahammad Ibrahimli, adviser to the chairman of the party "Popular Front" of Azerbaijan (PPFA.)

Since the beginning of the year , authorities arrested 142 activists, journalists and human rights activists on the eve of the presidential elections in the country,  reported the Azerbaijani human rights organization “Human Rights Club.”

In Mingechavir and Sabirabad police and provocateurs and provided physical and moral pressure on journalists. So,  on September 5, were beaten several reporters in Sabirabad .

Authorities unreasonably refused registration of  four candidates. A single candidate from the National Council of Democratic Forces, Rustam Ibrahimbayov, was refused due to the dual citizenship, although the legislation limits the participation only in case of liabilities to other states. Ibrahimbayov presented official documents about the absence of such commitments which have not been taken into account.

Ten candidates admitted  to the election acted as advocates of Ilham Aliyev, and it has  turned the election into a farce. Ilham Aliyev, as well as a number of candidates, in violation of the Electoral Code, did not provide a declaration on his income, which also was not noticed by  the CEC, despite the demands and remarks  of Jamil Hasanly.

Great differences on the  number of voters between the CEC and the State Statistics Committee testify  that the authorities want to falsify  the elections. According to the CEC ,  there are about  4.9 million voters, and according to the State Statistics Committee, there are 6, 4 million voters. According to official data, the number of voters included  people that  left Azerbaijan, creating a front for fraud. -0 –