Authoritarian System of Government in Azerbaijan Hinders the Development of Society

Azerbaijan has established an authoritarian control system, as evidenced by the results of the latest poll, the head of the NGO Centre for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Training Anar Mammadli told Objective TV. 

Citizens are less willing to participate in governance, the social status is evaluated as hopeless, and the socio-political situation is called stagnation.

The survey of the entire country (except for the occupied territories) involved citizens of all ages. Most of them have higher education.

60% of the respondents were poor people, and half of them said the situation is hopeless and only 2% hoped for positive change.

As the main causes they named unemployment and deep social cleavages between a handful of very rich and millions of poor people, as well as corruption and arbitrariness of officials.

It is significant that none of the respondents complained about the lack of a car, real estate, savings, or opportunities to rest abroad.

The people preferred to talk about the absence of the possibility of normal medical care, decent education for children and other pressing needs.

All the interviewed talked reluctantly about the socio-political situation and their civic position. 

All th interviewees believe freedom of assembly is an important part of society, but reduce it to pickets and rallies. This is due to the lack of practice of assembling in a community or municipality. Police break all the meetings, otherwise community leaders and organizers, which could solve some problems in everyday life would appear in towns and villages, said Mammadli.

According to him, the population does not trust any of the public or government agencies. The fact that 20% of the respondents trust the solution to their problems by the presidential administration is a sign of the usurpation of powers by the supreme executive authority.

It is noteworthy that 46% of the respondents believe the parliament, the judiciary and the institution of the Ombudsman are insignificant appendages to the head of state and his entourage.

Political parties and social organizations are trusted by 5-6% and the media are trusted by 12%. In this case, the most popular in the province are news programs and talk shows by the TV channels ANS and Khazar, and in cities most popular are Internet portals and international satellite TV channels.

Very low civic activity is manifested in the fact that 76% of the respondents showed the limited role of the voters. Almost no one wanted to enter the electoral headquarters of the candidate in the election administration, the list of monitors, volunteers and so on.

According to Mammadli, the current political realities do not permit the inclusion of questions on political preferences in the survey. In 12 constituencies the authorities pressured the volunteers who conducted the survey.

The expert also noted that the President has the broadest powers, while functions of the Parliament and the judicial system are reduced to sounding abstract decisions from above, and the election of Deputies only "works" through the majority system, which provides zero political competition.

Moreover, in 2009, provisions were included, allowing the President to usurp power in the time of war even more.

The opposition due to subjective reasons has no single electoral base, and there is no desire to work. Therefore, real progress in the public mind requires the creation of effective public organizations, summed Mammadli. -17D-