Congress delegation calls for reactivation of pluralistic democracy in Azerbaijan

An international delegation of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities observed the municipal elections in Azerbaijan on 23 December 2009. The delegation composed of 11 Congress members representing 8 different Council of Europe countries monitored the vote in about 100 polling stations. A pre-election mission was carried out prior to the election day, on 7 and 8 December.

In respect of the overall organisation of the election day, Gaye Doganoglu (Turkey, EPP/CD), Head of the Congress delegation, stressed that concerning practical arrangements, the elections took place in a calm atmosphere and were well prepared. “Though concrete improvement is necessary”, she said.

Francis Lec (France, SOC), Congress Rapporteur on the municipal elections of 23 December, pointed to the importance of independent media and freedom of expression for a genuine democratic climate. “Unpaid airtime on TV was restricted to parties that registered candidates in at least 50% of the municipalities. De facto, television largely transmitted the image of a single party system in Azerbaijan, where elections do not play an important role”, stated the Rapporteur.

Jean-Claude Frécon (France, SOC), Rapporteur for the Congress monitoring on Azerbaijan, underlined that there were few visual signs of a lively election campaign and that competition between parties was missing in the run-up to the elections. The turnout of 31,86% reported by the Central Election Commission confirms the overall impression of the Congress delegation that this vote did not enjoy enough public interest due to a low-key campaign and the lack of a truly pluralistic party landscape in Azerbaijan”, concluded Jean-Claude Frécon.

The list of incidents noticed by members of the Congress delegation on 23 December includes, in particular, shortcomings concerning the counting of the voters in the polling stations, the role and the origin of local election observers, the readability of ballot papers and the regularity of the vote count.

“Based on incidents in some of the polling-stations the integrity of the vote could be called into doubt. There is still room for improvements for the Azerbaijani authorities”, underlined the Rapporteur for the elections, Francis Lec.

The Congress delegation considers the elections of 23 December 2009 as being symptomatic of the still unsatisfactory situation of local democracy and – more generally – of the weakness of local governments in Azerbaijan .

Press contacts on the spot:

Renate Zikmund, Head of the Congress Division of Communication, International Relations and Election Observation, tel. +33 6 59 78 64 55; renate.zikmund@coe.int