Azernews.Az

BAKU – The OSCE election observation mission has issued an interim report assessing the situation in Azerbaijan ahead of the November 7 parliamentary elections.

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said all main political parties are participating in the elections. However, at the start of pre-election campaigns, political parties were not particularly active and the opposition’s sources of funding were very limited.

The report said that while there are several television stations with national coverage in Azerbaijan, citizens have very limited access to diverse political views in the broadcast media.

"This is most importantly due to a de facto government monopoly on television, with all national TV channels – including the state broadcaster AzTV and the public broadcaster ITV – presenting mainly the activities of the authorities and rarely showing opposition leaders and their views. The print media is more diverse, with some opposition-oriented or independent newspapers. However, these have low circulation figures and are not widely available in the regions."

ODIHR said the observation mission had received complaints over alleged obstacles posed by local executive officials to independent and opposition candidates.

ODIHR said the Central Election Commission (CEC) is very active in making preparations for the elections. It has launched an extensive voter education campaign and has conducted training for lower-level commissions. CEC sessions are open to the media and observers. However, CEC members are often not provided with all draft decisions and necessary documents before a session, the report said.

It said the Election Code was amended in June 2010, but several recommendations previously offered by the OSCE/ODIHR remain unaddressed.

ODIHR also said women are under-represented in the political life of Azerbaijan.

"In these elections, 13 percent of the nominated candidates are women, as are 13 percent of the registered candidates. The ruling party increased the number of women among its candidates significantly in comparison to 2005, from 13 to 19 (17 percent of registered YAP candidates). However, the number of women among opposition parties’ candidates remains very low. The APFP–Musavat bloc has only five women among its 91 nominated candidates."

The report said women are also under-represented within the election administration. Four of the 18 CEC members are women, while only two of the 125 constituency election commissions are chaired by women.

It also noted that election hopefuls of the country’s main political parties include representatives of ethnic minorities.

Voters will elect 125 members of parliament for a five-year term, under the majority of votes with one round of voting. The number of registered voters is approximately 4.8 million in the country of 9 million people.

The OSCE’s long-term observation mission, which includes 16 members of the main team and 22 observers working in Azerbaijani regions, worked in the country from September 28 to October 16.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament (EP) will deploy observer delegations for election-day observation. The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office has appointed Wolfgang Grossruck as Special Co-coordinator to lead the OSCE short-term observer mission. Mr. Grossruck undertook a pre-election mission in Baku from October 14 to 18.