Azernews.Az

BAKU - The OSCE mission evaluating the situation ahead of Azerbaijan’s parliamentary elections due in November has released a report assessing the pre-election environment. It said that though efforts are being made to improve the technical organization of the poll, the country still faces challenges in improving the democratic environment required for holding the election.

The mission maintained that particularly, due to repeated appeals by political parties to hold protests in the center of Baku, freedom of assembly is very limited. It claimed that arrests, court trials on libel charges and pressure on journalists are restricting journalists’ freedoms and impeding free expression of ideas inherent to a democratic election process.

Regarding changes made to the Election Code in June, which reduced pre-election campaigns from 60 to 23 days, the mission maintained that given what it sees as obstacles that have been observed with enforcing civil and political rights since the previous election held in 2005, the latest amendments restrict candidates and parties’ opportunities to convey their views to voters.

The report said, further, that the way election commissions are formed remains a controversial issue, which essentially grants pro-government forces a deciding advantage on all levels and undermines confidence in the impartiality of the electoral administration.

The OSCE said that since the 2005 elections, some steps have been taken to prevent official interference with the election process, establish a commission to take into account complaints and appeals and ensure finger-inking of voters to prevent repeated polling. However, despite long-standing recommendations, other important issues, particularly those regarding the make-up of electoral commissions, revocation of election tallies and voting by military men have not been addressed, the mission said.

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) called on Azerbaijan’s government agencies to take action to resolve the issues cited in the report, including ensuring freedom of assembly, improving media environment and attending to the issue regarding the composition of election commissions.

Azerbaijan’s elections are to be monitored by 30 long-term and 450 short-term OSCE observers.