Employees of Housing Maintenance Departments (HMD) Involved in Parliamentary Elections

The Sumgait workers of housing maintenance offices are secretly attracted to the campaign for the parliamentary elections.

According to Turan’s information received from residents, workers of HMD call up people and ask them whether they have given signatures in favor of a particular candidate. Such a "test" is imposed on citizens who have supported nominees from opposition parties and independent candidates.

Voters see these calls as a violation of their rights, as the law does not require voters to report to anyone.

At the same time, the CEC believes that the expert committee of the district election commissions can take advantage of a variety of entities to clarify the reality and owners of the signatures in signature sheets.

According to other information, the local executive bodies form a new group from the staff of housing maintenance offices and housing cooperatives with so-called "foremen" responsible for the relevant territory.

In previous elections, these groups were required to provide the numbers of the identity cards of the residents. According to the opposition, the data were used for the collection of signatures in favor of pro-government candidates. Apparently these practices will be used again.

In addition, in the last elections "foremen" and "captains" were used as "independent" observers at the polling stations, as well as the organization of Carousel - multiple voting of the same groups at different sites.

Groups of “foremen” are included in larger associations of "centurions" run by appointees of local authorities. -06B-