Fraud in Past Azerbaijan Elections

It is easy to say in the last election when Ilham Aliyev was elected president, there was widespread fraud. When Haydar Aliyev was elected president, he put his own family members into governmental positions. So it was not surprised that after Haydar past away, his son Ilham took power. Much of the public was not okay with this because it was known that he was into gambling and drinking, rather than running a country.
Fraud was noticed right for when citizens went to place their vote. In the districts where Aliyev was not supported and the opposition was their name was not on the official voter’ list. In other districts, there were more names on the list than people living in that particular district. There were cameras watching people placing their vote, and police units watching them, intimidating the voter with their looks. Other districts there were employers saying if they vote for this person they wouldn’t have a job anymore. Violence even erupted outside the polling stations by opposition parties.
When the results were released, a war or coup did not occur, but rather rallies so violent that there was physical brutality, arrests, and death. On October 16, there were 15,000 opposition supporters went face to face with 5,000 policemen, resulting in 5 deaths. The rebels were using metal pipes, tree branches, and sharpened stakes to fight the policemen. It is said that it was the worst protest and suppression from an election result. In the days following, there were over 300 arrests, and the election officials refused to confirm the ballot results in each district. Weeks after there was still more protesting, but not as severe.
The election is only a few weeks away, with the opposition party boycotting, it will be interesting to see how the people of Azerbaijan react to the result of the presidential election.
Source: http://www.ciaonet.org.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/olj/si/si_2_12/si_2_12_sab01.pdf

Here are also some additional websites to go to for more information on the 2005 presidential election:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/10/13/azerba6448.htm - Human Rights Watch on Azerbaijan’s election
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/international/asia/10azerbaijan.html - Crowd Protests Fraud in Azerbaijan Vote, written to help us understand the people’s reaction to the fraud.

Opposition

As of 09/15/2008 the Azerbaijan CEC(Central Election Commission) had officially registered 7 Presidential candidates for the October 15 2008 Presidential Elections. The link below shows the list of Presidential candidates including the opposition party candidates, parties affiliation and dates of registration.

http://www.cec.gov.az/en/7president2008/candidate.htm

Concerns by the opposition over having free and fair elections has resulted to recent amendments of the Azerbaijan Election code which if implemented would improve the elections process. Some of  the of the changes are; inking voters to prevent multiple voting, elimination of envelopes from the voting process, explicit prohibition against against interference with the election process and changes to the considerations and complains .http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2008/07/32174_en.pdf

Some of the amendments however, prove to be a challenge to the opposition, such as limiting their campaigning efforts by reduction of campaign time to more than half from 60 to 28 day prior to the election.

NAP

The New Azerbaijan Party is a center-right party, currently boasting over 400,000 members, created in the wake of the Soviet Union. Created in 1988 by a group of intellectuals led by Heydar Aliyev, the New Azerbaijan Party’s goals are, “…aimed at strengthening the state independency, building democratic, legal, and secular state and ensuring the peaceful and prosperous life of the citizens.” (www.yap.org.az)

In 1993, Aliyev was elected President and the party saw sweeping gains in the 1995 parliamentary elections. The NAP won again in 2003 with the election of IIham Aliyev, previously the NAP deputy chairman, who captured over 76% of the vote. The 2003 election was highly controversial, as Human Rights Watch held that the NAP manipulated the election to win. "Human Rights Watch research found that the government has heavily intervened in the campaigning process in favor of Prime Minister Ilham Aliyev, son of current President Heidar Aliyev. The government has stacked the Central Election Commission and local election commission with its supporters, and banned local non-governmental organizations from monitoring the vote. As the elections draw nearer, government officials have openly sided with the campaign of Ilham Aliyev, constantly obstructing opposition rallies and attempting to limit public participation in opposition events. In some cases, local officials have closed all the roads into town during opposition rallies, or have extended working and school hours - on one occasion, even declaring a Sunday work day - to prevent participation in opposition rallies." (http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/azerbaijan/index.htm)

See also: http://www.osce.org/documents/html/pdftohtml/1151_en.pdf.html

Despite the allegations of impropriety, the NAP seems to be positioned for another win. With the major opposition party boycotting the election, the incumbent president, Aliyev should win re-election with no problem. However, even it seems as if Aliyev would still have a good chance to win the election as a few former opposition leaders have decided to back him. (http://news.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1298175&lang=EN)

Additionally, the NAP is planning on rolling out new election strategies that draw heavily on those used in other countries, with a new slogan and increasing the use of technology in trying to get their message out. (http://news.trendaz.com/?show=news&newsid=1296591&lang=EN)

A Political Overview

Azerbaijan faces many challenges in the face of its upcoming presidential election on October 15^th 2008. The purpose of this website will be to keep a track of the news and politics surrounding the election as it unfolds over the next month and then track the subsequent implications of the results that follow.

Brief History:

Azerbaijan’s presidential republic was established with a written constitution on November 12^th, 2005. The political system consists of three-branches, executive, legislative and judicial. In theory these branches are to function autonomously and provide for a clear separation of powers. However it is to be noted that one party is in-charge of both the legislature and the executive for over a decade now. This has led some to believe that true political competition does not exist in Azerbaijan. The Legislative is made up of The National Assembly or Milli Maclis, a unicameral legislature. The executive branch consists of an elected president that carries out the executive powers and a prime minister who is assigned and has far less influence on policy-making.

Elections:

On a national level Azerbaijan elects a head of state which is the president and a legislature. Legislative elections are held in November every five years. Before 2005, 100 members of the National Assembly were elected through single-seat constituencies and 25 members were elected by proportional representation. Since then all 125 members are elected in single-seat constituencies. The president is elected by the people and also serves a five year term. This system of voting lends itself to creating a one party dominant state in Azerbaijan. The party in-charge of both the legislature and the executive is the New Azerbaijan Party, with the current head of state, and incumbent for the upcoming election, Ilham Aliyev. Outside parties are allowed but when they come into opposition with the reigning party they are politically suppressed and undermined.

Opposition:

The October 2003 presidential elections provided a clear picture of the frustration that opposition leaders are having in trying to find a political voice in Azerbaijan. As was expected in this election, Ilham Aliyev, the son of the outgoing president, Heydar Aliyev, was elected to office without any hope for opposition. International observers held that the election was by no means free or fair. In recent years an opposition has started to brew in Azerbaijan, most notable the Azadlig Coalition composing of three opposition parties: Musavat Party, Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, Azerbaijan Democratic Party. The coalition managed to win some seats in the 2005 legislative elections but recent amendments by the National Assembly threaten to divide the coalition. Parts of the Azadlig Coalition have threatened to boycott the election because they feel the recent amendments are once again to silence the opposition. So the questions remain, will there be an opposition that stands against incumbent Aliyev in the upcoming election? And even if someone does stand-up, do recent rule changes threaten any hope of a successful opposition? Is the one-party system here to stay? These are questions that will continue to be explored in future posts.

Helpful Websites:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/aj.html (Info about Azerbaijan)

http://www.meclis.gov.az/ (National Assembly Homepage)

http://www.president.az/index.php?lang=en (President Ilham Aliyev’s Homepage)

http://www.yap.org.az/en/ (The New Azerbaijan Party Homepage)

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=336 (Info on Legislative Elections)

http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/azerbaijan/index.htm (Info on 2003 Presidential Election)