Serious violations took place in the elections on February 7 – OSCE and ODIHR observers

This was the first election to be held throughout the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, an issue that dominated the campaign and was echoed in public sentiment. While preparations for the election were efficient and professional, it lacked genuine pluralism and critical voices were continuously stifled. Longstanding restrictions on freedoms of association and expression were reinforced by recent legal amendments and resulted in legislation not in line with international democratic standards, international observers said in a statement  today.

The joint observation mission from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) concluded that while the election code is detailed and regulates all aspects of the electoral process, recent amendments left previous ODIHR recommendations unaddressed.

"We have witnessed a historic moment in Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity, in this first presidential election held across the entire territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan since independence,” said Artur Gerasymov, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the OSCE short-term observers. “The early presidential election was held in a restrictive environment, and while it was efficiently prepared, critical voices and political alternatives were largely absent. Regrettably, previous recommendations to bring the legal framework closer in line with international standards for democratic elections have remained unaddressed, and numerous restrictions in law and practice continue to exist.”

The campaign remained low key throughout, lacked any meaningful public engagement and was not competitive. While six other candidates participated in the campaign, none of them convincingly challenged the incumbent president’s policies in their campaigns, leaving voters without any genuine alternative. Civil society and opposition representatives noted that the legal framework and its implementation makes it difficult to enjoy their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to hold public gatherings, both in the run-up to the election and outside the campaign period.

While the equal treatment of women and men is enshrined in law, there are no specific measures to promote women’s participation and women remain underrepresented in all aspects of public and political life. While women are well represented at the local level, no woman has run in a presidential election since 2013.

Public campaign between political alternatives, while the media environment remained extremely constrained, leaving voters without the possibility to meaningfully inform themselves about the options on voting day," said Daniela De Ridder, Head of the OSCE PA delegation. "Women remain vastly under-represented in political life, although they shoulder the majority of the organizational work on election day. This demonstrates the need to introduce laws that guarantee equal participation in politics."

Highly restrictive media legislation as well as recent arrests of critical journalists have hindered the media from operating freely and led to widespread self-censorship, limiting the scope for independent journalism and critical debate. Minimal coverage of the candidates and campaign reduced the opportunity for voters to learn about the contestants and their programs in order to make an informed choice on election day.

“In this important election for the country, none of the candidates challenged the incumbent convincingly, and some opposition parties did not take part at all, claiming a lack of adequate democratic conditions,” said Eoghan Murphy, who headed ODIHR’s election observation mission. “While preparations for the election were efficient and professional, including the training of precinct commissioners, on election day important safeguards were often disregarded and we observed substantial procedural errors throughout the day.”

Answering Turan's questions, the mission members confirmed the existence of serious violations during the voting at the polling stations, including restrictions on the actions of observers and the exclusion of local NGOs from monitoring. When asked if there was pressure on the members of the mission from the Azerbaijani authorities, Artur Gerasimov said that there was no pressure.

In turn, Reader stressed that serious violations were recorded during the voting and counting of votes. "The claims that the West put pressure on observers to criticize Azerbaijan are nonsense. All conclusions are objective," the members of the mission stressed, commenting on the allegations of the pro-government press.

Commenting on the recent arrests of journalists, Reader noted: "We are fixing this problem and we know well what conditions you are working in and not only in elections and outside them," answering a question about the situation with freedom of speech in Azerbaijan.

The members of the mission rejected the claims that the observers themselves did not see the violations, but believed the video on social networks. "We ourselves have recorded serious violations in the form of mass ballot stuffing, repeated voting groups and violations in the counting of votes," Murphy said.

At the same time, the members of the mission evaded the question, was anyone from the mission not allowed to enter Azerbaijan?

The international election observation mission to the early presidential election in Azerbaijan totaled 335 observers from 42 countries, comprising 256 ODIHR-deployed experts and long-term and short-term observers, and 79 from the OSCE PA.