OSCE estimations on Azerbaijani parliamentary elections, September 2nd 2024

Baku, Azerbaijan – September 2nd 2024 – In the run-up to the parliamentary elections held on September 1st 2024, the ODHIR deployed an Election Observation Mission. The mission is composed by other 11 experts from 11 OSCE participating States based in Baku and it aims to observe and report whether the elections are held in line with OSCE commitments and other international and domestic duties.

Some of the election components that were observed include:

• election-related legislation and its implementation

• respect for fundamental freedoms

• the work of the election administration

• voter and candidate registration

• campaign activities and financing

• media environment and media coverage of the election

During the post-election press conference held in Baku, three OSCE representatives were able to announce the Organization’s estimations of the parliamentary elections. Speaking at the conference were the special coordinator and leader of the OSCE short term mission Michael Creed; the head of OSCE PA delegation Lucie Potůčková; and the head of the Election Observation Mission Ditmir Bushati.

From what emerged, as the three speakers clearly reiterated, there were multiple irregularities that inevitably undermined the course and results of the parliamentary elections.

Standing out as the most problematic was the Azerbaijani legal framework, which allegedly hindered the development of genuine pluralism, as Michael Creed stated. “Restricted political and legal environment that does not enable genuine pluralism. Election administration lacked impartiality and took a formalistic approach that limited the inclusivity of the election” affirmed Creed, who later insisted on how this legal framework does not meet international standards. Moreover, the Irish deputy declared that citizens were not able to take part in the election campaign, without fears of retaliation. As evidence, he underlined that most candidates were in favor of the policies of the Ilham Aliyev government.

Therefore, Czech Member of Parliament Lucie Potůčková reiterated that in the absence of significant reforms and changes, the country will continue to be subject to a lack of political choice and participation and consequent political apathy.

Although the OSCE representatives were pleased to note the increasing engagement of women in the election commissions and that the voting process was generally well conducted, serious irregularities and omissions came to light, particularly in the vote counting and in the inconsistently applied procedures, which may have undermined the whole process.

Another criticized point was the treatment of prospective candidates, as many of them “were denied registration due to insufficient number of valid signatures (…) they couldn’t without correct mistakes in their applications, and several nominees even withdrew”, as reported by Ditmir Bushati. Moreover, new criteria and standards for the registration of political parties have resulted in severer restrictions on freedom of association.

Taking the election administration, due to their lack of differences they were unable to be impartial, even though they prepared the elections in an efficient way, with an extensive voter information campaign.

Furthermore, Citizen election observers’ groups, which are a fundamental part of the process, have faced several limitations. This was particularly evidenced by the party affiliation: it was ascertained that most of the members, in fact, came from the government party.

Concerning other legal restrictions, as reported by Ditmir Bushati, some citizen election observer groups were not registered and were not funded. Even more striking is the incarceration of some of these groups’ members.

Other major concerns expressed by the OSCE representatives were the number of journalists, member of civil society, as well as activists and human rights defenders in the country who are currently incarcerated in the country. The restrictions of freedom of association, assembly and expression imposed by the legal framework was, therefore, another main preoccupation. Thus, the Azerbaijani elections were unable to respect international standards. In fact, the country continues to disregard recommendations by ODHIR, as well as by the Council of Venice and the judgments by the European Court of Human Rights.

Questions

After the press conference, when asked by Report Information Agency whether the OSCE report was ready before the observation was over Michael Creed, Lucie Potůčková and Ditmir Bushati denied it, saying no documents regarding the mission were finalized before the observation was over. The representatives stressed that there are many stages of the election process that can determine whether an election met the democratic standards of OSCE or not.

Subsequently, when interrogated by reporter Parvana Bayramova on the comparison between the reports published for the last presidential elections and the current parliamentary elections, the representatives affirmed that their job is not to compare, since it is not part of their methodology. 

Furthermore, a journalist from the Turan News Agency asked about the impact of the irregularities that came to light during the vote counting. Additionally, the reporter wanted to know more about the reason why the interim report was not published on the pre-election situation. In response, the representatives stressed on the importance on the holistic aspect of the report, stating that their comments are on the whole framework, and it was therefore impossible to focus only on the irregularities occurred during the vote counting. They added that since the following mission was shorter than usual, they were unable to publish the interim report. However, they clarified that this did not prevent the observers from working efficiently.

When asked by journalist Nayla Balayeva if they’d discuss with authorities a case, according to which some images about local election observers and journalists had been posted on social media the previous day, they answered they could not “have any further comment that is already part of our preliminary statements on the Election Day”.

Trend International News Agency later asked why the conclusions of other actors did not overlap with the OSCE conclusions, to which the representatives answered that it would be disrespectful to comment on other entities’ work, and that the OSCE conclusions are the result of not only one, but many observers across multiple polling stations. Moreover, they reiterated that their documents are based on a solid methodology, highlighting the importance of cooperating with authorities.

OSCE website : https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/azerbaijan/574160