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2007 Assessment

Azerbaijan: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Azerbaijan: Integrity Scorecard Report > Sub-Category: Election Integrity
Indicators		Score
17	In law, is there an election monitoring agency or set of election monitoring agencies/entities?	100
18	Is the election monitoring agency effective?	60
19	Are elections systems transparent and effective?	54

Indicator and sub-Indicator Details

In law, is there an election monitoring agency or set of election monitoring agencies/entities?

17: In law, is there an election monitoring agency or set of election monitoring agencies/entities?

Score:

YES

Comments: The Central Election Commission (CEC) is the election monitoring agency that has the following structure: Central Election Commission, Constituency Election Commission and Precinct Election Commission (Con.ECs and PECs). The Central Election Commission consists of 18 members. The members of the CEC are approved by the Parliament. Six members of the CEC are representatives from different political parties that has the majority in Parliament. Six members are independents. The Constituency Election Commissions consists of nine members.

References: Reference: The Election Code of Azerbaijan Republic.

Peer Review Comments: Six members of CEC are representatives of different political parties that have the majority in Parliament, six members are from independent (non-partial) parties, and six members from the ruling party.

Is the election monitoring agency effective?

18a: In law, the agency or set of agencies/entities is protected from political interference.

Score:

YES

Comments: Under law, the Central Election Commission is protected from political interference.

References: Reference: The Election Code of Azerbaijan Republic.

18b: In practice, agency (or set of agencies/entities) appointments are made that support the independence of the agency.

Score:

100

Comments: In practice, the Central Election Commission has no independence.

References: Reference: Interview with different human rights defenders and lawyers, for instance, interview with Rauf Gasimov, the representative of Musavat Party to observe the last election in 2005. Interviews were taken in July 2007.

Peer Review Comments: It's not fully independent. Members of CEC are chosen from MPs, which makes the agency more or less loyal to the political processes that are going on.

Peer Review Comments: As specified in the law, the Central Election Commission is an independent institution and is protected from political interference.

However, the political bargaining over the seats in the CEC is very strong among the ruling party and opposition. In practice, the Presidents office controls the CEC. In many circumstances, including for the oppositions seats, candidacy for CEC membership has to be approved by the Presidents office.

18c: In practice, the agency or set of agencies/entities has a professional, full-time staff.

Score:

100

Comments: The Central Election Commission has a full-time professional staff.

References: www.cec.gov.az

18d: In practice, the agency or set of agencies/entities makes timely, publicly available reports following an election cycle.

Score:

100

Comments: Not all the time. The Central Election Commission sometimes make reports available to the public. The main problem, however, is that some reports, such as list of voters, were posted online, but the information was not correct. Voters who supposedly supported the opposition parties were excluded from the list. Reports about falsification are not open to the public.

References: Reference: Election Monitoring Center's Reports (2007).

Peer Review Comments: In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the CEC regularly reported about the election process and published elections results. The results of the election were available on the CEC Web sites: www.cec.gov.az www.infocenter.gov.az.

18e: In practice, when necessary, the agency or set of agencies/entities imposes penalties on offenders.

Score:

100

Comments: According to the election code, if the infringement described in the complaint can be considered a criminal act according to the criminal code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Central Election Commission can apply to the relevant public prosecutors. Usually the commission does not implement it. There are very few facts about this.

References: Reference: Election Monitoring Center's Reports on the election day monitoring of the third elections to the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held Nov. 6, 2005. www.accessdemocracy.org/library/1981_az_emcbrief_020106.pdf

Peer Review Comments: The CEC cannot issue penalties, but may refer matters to other agencies.

Are elections systems transparent and effective?

19a: In practice, there is a clear and transparent system of voter registration.

Score:

100

Comments: There is not a clear and transparent system for voter registration. The problem is that the government always tries to exclude the names of voters who are potential supporters of opposition party candidates. In the last election, along with that problem, the names of deceased people were included on the list, and election members voted in favor of them to support the ruling party's candidate.

References: Reference: Election Monitoring Center's Report on the election day monitoring of the third elections to the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held Nov. 6, 2005. www.accessdemocracy.org/library/1981_az_emcbrief_020106.pdf

19b: In law, election results can be contested through the judicial system.

Score:

YES

Comments: According to the Election Code (article number 112.3), election results can be contested through the judicial system.

References: Reference: The Election Code of Azerbaijan Republic.

19c: In practice, election results can be effectively appealed through the judicial system.

Score:

100

Comments: Since there is no independent court system in Azerbaijan, election results have never been effectively appealed through the judicial system.

Peer Review Comments: There are several good examples of that: Gusar, parliamentary elections 2000, etc.

Peer Review Comments: It is not possible to change any election results with a court appeal.

Peer Review Comments: Several days before the 2005 parliamentary elections, the CEC approved a regulation on appeal mechanisms, which made appeals technically difficult. Also, because the judicial system is dependent on the executive branch, there is a little hope to win in court.

19d: In practice, the military and security forces remain neutral during elections.

Score:

100

Comments: In practice, the military and security forces never remain neutral during elections. Police forces are used both in the propaganda stage of the election and on election day.

Peer Review Comments: In practice, military, police and security forces are urged by the government to vote for the ruling party.

Peer Review Comments: I disagree. Military and security forces do remain neutral during the elections.

By law, the police are responsible for ensuring security outside of the precinct. In other words, the election fraud and falsification techniques are quite sophisticated, and developed so that there is no need for interference by military or security forces.

For instance, voting in the army is technically well organized, but in reality soldiers vote according to the instructions of their officers.

19e: In law, domestic and international election observers are allowed to monitor elections.

Score:

YES

Comments: According to the Election Code (article numbers 40.7, 41, 42 and 44), domestic and international election observers are allowed to monitor elections.

References: Reference: The Election Code of Azerbaijan Republic.

19f: In practice, election observers are able to effectively monitor elections.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: Election observers have unfettered access to polling sites, counting stations, and voters themselves. The government does not interfere with the observers\' activities. <p>50 Score Criteria: Election observers generally have access to polling sites, counting stations, and voters but encounter restrictions in certain areas. The government may impose burdensome regulatory or bureaucratic requirements on observers to discourage their involvement. <p>0 Score Criteria: Election observers\' movements are significantly limited by the government and many polling and counting sites are restricted or barred from observers. The government imposes so many bureaucratic or regulatory burdens on the observers that their mission is rendered ineffective.$

Comments: In practice, election observers can effectively monitor the election process in some stages; however, there are huge problems for observation of the election, especially when the votes are calculated.

Peer Review Comments: International and local observers have free access to any information they need. (Re: Presidential Elections of 2003)

Peer Review Comments: It also depends on how well-trained and experienced the observers are. In many cases, the opposition parties do not have trained observers. For instance, sometimes opposition party observers argue on small things with the precinct chairman, while being oblivious to major election fraud due to lack of experience and training.