Azeri election body chief pleased with recent developments in process

In an interview with Azerbaijani ANS television, Mazahir Panahov, chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, CEC, spoke about the forthcoming parliamentary elections on 5th November. Panahov said he was satisfied with the process so far and confirmed that despite continued appeals to register, the ballot papers were already being printed. Commenting on President Heydar Aliyev's decision to allow the unregistered parties to run in the elections, Panahov denied that this had been interference in the work of the CEC and said that Aliyev had taken a wise step. He said it had been impossible to consider all the complaints within the framework of the CEC and that the majority of complaints had come from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. Panahov also commented on the source of funds to run in the election and confirmed that there was an official mechanism for distributing the funds which came from the Finance Ministry and that the majority of the money was being spent on salaries. The following are excerpts from a report by Azerbaijani TV station ANS on 23rd October

[Presenter in studio] Good evening. Although [parliamentary] elections will be held in a few days, some issues are still not clear. Complaints concerning district electoral commissions continue to come to the capital. Those wishing to run in the elections under the first-past-the-post system have appealed to the courts. Those who have registered, who we can consider the happy ones, are complaining over improper attitudes. Well, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission [CEC], Mazahir Panahov, will answer our questions today.

[Video shows presenter and Panahov sitting in armchairs in office, presenter's voice]

[Q] Mazahir muallim [form of address], how many days do we have until the elections?

[A] You know that the elections will be held on 5th November. If I am not mistaken, today is 23rd October, isn't it?

[Q] So, it is such a short time. Why I am asking this? Despite this short time, the majority of those running in the elections under the first-past-the-post system are still appealing to the courts. What will be the outcome of all this?

[A] I do not know where you have got the information about this majority. You know that we have too little information from the courts, the nominees are appealing to the courts directly. But I do not consider that this is the majority of them, because we have already got the official reports about the majority of those who did not appeal to the courts. You know that the ballot papers must be printed and now this process is under way.

[Q] How many people appealed to run under the first-past-the-post system?

[A] This was as follows. You know that there are 99 districts, 1,044 signature papers were given to Azerbaijani citizens, of them 227 were not returned and 817 were returned. Of these 817 papers, 409 were registered and 408 were not registered.

[Q] How many people are registered as of today?

[A] At present 409 are registered but this number is still being clarified.

[Q] Thus, over 600 people were sidelined.

[A] The number of nonregistered as candidates is just 408 because 227 people did not even return the papers.

[Q] Mazahir muallim, recently one of the well-known figures of the ruling [New Azerbaijan Party - NAP] party, Mubariz Gurbanly [deputy executive secretary], blamed you for not knowing the law on elections. Certainly, you've heard about this.

[A] He blamed me? No, I do not know.

[Q] This was because you said that those registered as candidates must leave their jobs till election day. Gurbanly and Siruz Tabrizli [press and information minister] continue to work and you told ANS TV that the CEC's regular sitting would discuss this issue.

[A] No, probably, you was wrongly informed. I remember very precisely what I told ANS TV. I did not say it like this.

[Q] How did you say it then?

[A] I know the issue as follows. Gurbanly is a presenter of the "Week" analytical programme on [state] TV and while on air he spoke about the elections with someone. The law says that Gurbanly may be the presenter of this programme but he may not discuss the elections. There is no need for Gurbanly to leave his post but he must not speak about the elections in his programme because he is registered as a candidate.

[Q] Doesn't this programme show anything about the elections?

[A] He must not talk about it. If Gurbanly presented anything about the elections, this is violation of the law. I said this, but I did not say that we would discuss this issue at the CEC's sitting. As far as Tabrizli is concerned, you are right, too. You know that Tabrizli had been registered as the candidate under the first-past-the-post system but then he campaigned for his [NAP] party list under the proportional representation system and delivered a speech on state TV. In fact, he, probably, did not pay attention to this, I understand him. But I think that he understood his mistake and would never do this.

[Q] So, you said that Tabrizli would never make this mistake.

[A] Yes, I believe that he did this by mistake and told ANS TV in this way. I do not think that he did it deliberately.

[Q] Mazahir muallim, did you introduce any punishment in these cases independent of whether it was deliberate or not?

[A] You are absolutely right. Of course, if the law is violated, it doesn't matter whether it was deliberately or not. You see that Gurbanly did not present "Week" programme on Sunday [22nd October]. Probably, he was forced to choose this compromise to explain to the Azerbaijani public his carelessness in the previous programme.

[Passage omitted: dispute continues]

[Q] People are also saying that the local executive authorities are exerting pressure on the district electoral commissions. The latter are subordinate to you, so this means that pressure is being exerted on you. Do you accept this?

[A] You know that the elections are a complex process, they are an event in the country's life. If you remember, when my Russian counterpart, Mr [Aleksandr] Veshnyakov was here, he said some very good things. He said that all former Soviet countries, including Russia, have a desire to hold democratic elections but the culture of holding these elections is too undeveloped and this is natural. As you know, it is impossible to establish this immediately. It takes years, dozens of years, and maybe even longer before nations form a culture of holding elections.

[Q] Did your Russian counterparts mean themselves by saying this?

[A] They mean themselves as well as us. I also say that we are behind the West in that point of view.

[Q] So, if we are behind the West in this issue, our elections will be not democratic in any case?

[A] You know, you are interrupting me, that is why, the logic might be lost here. You started the question by saying that the law is being violated on site, i.e. there is some interference or dissatisfaction. I did not want to say that the law is being observed everywhere. But I believe that there are more violations of the law in other spheres of our life than during the election process. We are doing our best to minimize these violations during the election process. The elections do not only depend on the 18 CEC members. If the latter suddenly appear on Azerbaijani state TV and start to persuade the Azerbaijani public: be sure, we guarantee democratic elections for you, everyone knows that it will be just a populist speech. I never followed this path, I always said that the elections are a very serious issue in the lives of all countries and, that is why all the people must hold the elections, i.e. independent of their position and social status the whole people must hold the elections, everyone must consider himself as an active participant. I consider that major and giant steps are being taken in this direction. I say this without exaggeration because several elections have been held before my eyes. There are major differences. But it is possible that in certain places one can observe some pressure or violation. Our duty is to react to these issues if they actually occur and take measures.

[Q] As far as a reaction is concerned, I would like to ask you: some people say that they appeal to the Court of Appeal over violations in the district electoral commissions and the Court of Appeal send us to the CEC. Then the latter says that the Court of Appeal must consider the issue, at least, because the CEC has no time for this. Thus, there is procrastination here. Which steps must be taken to prevent this problem?

[A] I can say nothing about the activity of other structures in Azerbaijan but I am able to answer any question concerning the CEC. You are right, nearly all nonregistered candidates appealed to the CEC.

I repeatedly told various media outlets, if it is necessary I can repeat it. Naturally, the CEC is unable to consider all these cases in the form which the candidates claim. I spoke about the reasons. But it does not mean that we did not discuss them. We considered all of them. Regrettably, 90 per cent of all complaints were connected with the signatures. The people, who had signed the papers, even submitted applications, for example, one man sent us 500 applications from different people. Naturally, investigative steps must be taken here. As you know, according to the law the CEC cannot implement the investigative measures. At the same time, if over 400 people or even 300 people appeal to us over similar issues, not only the CEC but even the larger body needs several months to consider all of them.

[Q] Rafael Allahverdiyev, NAP deputy chairman and former Baku mayor, is speaking about pressure on the district electoral commissions. If the opposition says this, it is possible to estimate that they are looking for pretexts. But this is the opinion of an official person.

[A] If I tell you that the majority of those complaining over the electoral process are NAP members, maybe you would be surprised. I think that the person's party affiliation plays a minor role during this process. Every citizen has his own interests here, it is a natural interest, there is nothing bad here. Naturally, it is impossible to satisfy all these interests. People are not always satisfied with the elections everywhere in the world. The defeated side is always dissatisfied. Sometimes the reason is objective but it is possible to say that the majority is dissatisfied wrongly because somebody must be defeated. It is impossible to guarantee victory for everyone.

[Q] At last, I would like to touch upon one more issue, namely the funds of political parties. Please, tell us about the sources of the funds of the parties which run under the proportional representation system. Now you have the right to speak about this.

[A] As far as the funds are concerned, we examined the issue seriously and concentrated not on revealing the sources but on allocating money by the state in order to create the funds for parties. The law stipulates that the CEC must create the funds for them and we worked for this. To be honest, this work took up a major part of our time but there is nothing bad in it. You know that this is an allocation from the state budget, you must go through the Finance Ministry and other bodies. It was already decided to allocate 3m [presumably, manats] to the parties and 1m [manats] to those running under the first-past-the-post system.

[Q] Thus, you are unaware about their financial sources.

[A] We have, in fact, this information. But I, simply, did not analyse it. We have a group dealing with this issue. If you want, I can ask them to tell you precisely.

[Q] Finally, the state budget allocated 15bn manats to the CEC.

[A] In fact, it is just 10bn manats because various interests are included in this sum which, you know, are not allocated to us by the state.

[Q] Why?

[A] This is nearly 12bn [manats].

[Q] But this is 15bn manats?!

[A] This is not true, who told you this? We were allocated 10bn manats of the 15bn, the remaining 5bn manat is interest. Please, detail this.

[A] This is for VAT, the social funds, other funds.

[Q] So, you pay taxes?

[A] Of course, during the whole process.

[Q] Did you draw up a mechanism for using these funds? Why am I asking you this? If this mechanism does not exist, then tomorrow you might be charged with embezzlement, isn't that right?

[A] Of course, it exists. The major part of the funds are used for salaries.

  [Q] You are obliged to distribute these funds directly, aren't you?

[A] Not really. The law stipulates that the major part of these funds are to be transferred directly, i.e. it does not depend on our wish. For example, nearly 700bn-800bn [manats] of this sum are salaries. You know that unlike previous elections, all district and precinct electoral commissions get salaries. They get good salaries and these salaries are the main part of the aforementioned funds. They are being allocated directly and this is not our obligation, the Finance Ministry allocates this. But we present them with figures, for example, six members are in the precinct or nine members are in the district plus one or two technical workers. This is stipulated in the law.

[Q] Mazahir muallim, you did not express your attitude on one more thing as the CEC chairman. Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev ordered that those parties, which had been sidelined from the elections, were guaranteed to run in the elections. The aforementioned parties got the right to run in the elections. I ask you to evaluate this decision from the legal point of view: was it an interference in the CEC's activity?

[A] First of all, I would like to say that the president of any country can interfere in any issue within this country and this is not bad but even worthy. Mr President appealed to us and asked us to reconsider those points which prevented registration of these parties by the CEC. This was the essence of his appeal.

[Q] Let's imagine, that the president orders that these parties not be allowed to run in the elections.

[A] The president cannot order this.

[Q] Let's say, he appeals to you.

[A] He can appeal.

[Q] So, he makes the opposite appeal.

[A] You know, I do not want to speak in conjecture. But I do not believe that the president would make this appeal. The president of any country always attempts to take wise steps. I say this sincerely, the Azerbaijani president took a very wise step.

[Q] Mazahir muallim, what is your speciality?

[A] I am a physicist. I was working in theoretical physics.

[Q] How does your current work suit you compared to your previous job?

[A] You can see how.

[Passage to end omitted: Panahov praises ANS TV's journalistic standards]

[Please note 4,500 manat equals 1 US dollar]

Source: ANS TV, Baku, in Azeri 1640 gmt 23 Oct 00

BBC Mon TCU 241000 km/fa

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Posted October 25, 2000 © Eurasianet
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