EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Azerbaijan: For One Election Monitoring Group, Seeing Is Believing

EURASIA INSIGHT

AZERBAIJAN: FOR ONE ELECTION MONITORING GROUP, SEEING IS BELIEVING
Mina Muradova 6/12/08

A recent court decision to cancel the registration of Azerbaijan’s largest election observation group has sparked concerns about the ability of non-governmental organizations to monitor the country’s upcoming October 15 presidential vote.

On May 14, a Baku district court upheld an earlier decision by the Ministry of Justice to revoke the registration of the Election Monitoring Center (EMC), a non-partisan domestic monitoring organization. Minor technical issues, including inconsistent addresses, were the cited cause.

The organization had received its registration in mid-February after six previous applications were denied. Without the registration, the Central Election Commission (CEC) cannot accredit the group as an election observer. CEC registration of domestic observers will start in late July. Under the law, the CEC can accredit only those organizations whose primary purpose is election observation, or whose name reflects this mission. Non-accredited NGOs will not be able to file court cases against alleged election violations.

As have other representatives of Azerbaijan’s civil society, Azerbaijani Lawyers Association Chairman Annagi Hajibeyli argues that there are no grounds for the decision against EMC. "Regarding the change of [EMC’s] legal address, this can’t be considered a significant violation of the law," Hajibeyli said. "In this case, the Justice Ministry should have given EMC a warning, but not cancel its registration."

EMC has monitored four elections in Azerbaijan since 2001, and says that it has trained more than 4,000 election observers. EMC Executive Director Anar Mammadli says that the monitoring center had planned to conduct a parallel count of voters for this year’s presidential election.

"The purpose [of the parallel count would be] to prevent electoral fraud; in particular, if, according to observers really 30 percent of voters came to a [polling] station, then the government will not be able to say 70 percent," Mammadli explained.

But without registration as an observer, the organization will not be able to perform the parallel count. "After the court’s decision, the center has given up on the idea of an alternative � count during the elections as political conditions do not allow for it," Mammadli said. "It shows that the upcoming elections will not be free and fair."

Mammadli charges that some government officials consider the center to be pro-opposition since its conclusions sometimes coincide with those of Azerbaijan’s opposition parties. Mammadli adamantly dismisses such a notion. "We have established relations with all parties. It does not matter if it is pro-government or pro-opposition," he said.

EMC plans to appeal the decision and, failing all else, to turn to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for remedy.

Despite the loss of its registration, Mammadli says that the organization will continue to "render legal assistance to observers and conduct trainings for everybody who wants to be an election observer." EMC receives support for such trainings from the Washington, DC-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), a United States Agency for International Development contractor.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United States Embassy, and NDI have all expressed concern about what the loss of EMC’s registration means for Azerbaijan’s willingness to hold a free and fair vote. They have called for the organization’s registration to be reinstated. The court’s decision to revoke the registration "strikes at the heart of the democratic election process � the right of citizens to monitor their elections," noted NDI President Kenneth Wollack in a May 15 statement.

Opposition presidential candidate Eldar Namazov agrees that the cancellation of EMC’s registration was intended to quash a parallel vote count. "I believe the authorities fear that ECM was going to conduct a parallel � count that will provide a public check on the election process," said Namazov, a former advisor to the late President Heidar Aliyev. "EMC is an experienced organization with the human and technical resources for good monitoring. If the authorities are confident of the people’s support, why do they fear a parallel � count?"

Ministry of Justice spokesperson Aydin Agazade, disputed Namazov’s assertion. The cancellation of EMC’s registration was done in accordance with the law, Agazade said. "There are no politics in this case," Agazade said.

But civil society activists worry that many NGOs will face difficulties in the run-up to the October election. Chingiz Dadashev, secretary of the Consultative Council for Free and Fair Elections, a coalition uniting some 55 NGOs, says that "there are just a few � specialized organizations" that are expected to be able to participate in the elections as an observer. As a workaround, NGOs like EMC and others are instead opting to send individual observers.

Preparing them for the vote, though, is an additional challenge, Dadashev says. Local officials outside of Baku "threaten the owners of premises where the training is held or create problems for trainers," Dadashev alleged.

For EMC, an exit poll would be an unappealing alternative to a parallel count of voters. "A pure exit poll is not acceptable in Azerbaijan since people here will not publicly say for whom they actually voted," Mammadli said.

Some 43,000 domestic observers took part in Azerbaijan’s last presidential elections in 2003, a vote that international monitors deemed undemocratic. The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights noted considerable pressure on domestic observers at that time. A more positive assessment was given to the 2005 parliamentary elections, after the lifting of a ban on foreign-funded NGOs acting as election observers. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Editor�s Note: Mina Muradova is a freelance reporter based in Baku.

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