Conducted in Azerbaijan on December 12, 1999
For the Sake of Civic Society,
an Independent Consulting and Assistance Center
Baku, December 20, 1999

"For the Sake of Civic Society" (FSCS) an Independent Consulting and
Assisting Center has gained experience in enlightening voters and observing
elections in Azerbaijan during the three years of its activity. The Center
observed all the stages of the October 1998 presidential elections and
issued a full report. Based upon this experience, FSCS observed all the
stages of the December 12, 1999 local government elections as a publicly
registered union. The Center built its work in mutual relations with the
National Democratic Institute, International Foundation for Electoral
Systems (IFES), Open Society Institute - Azerbaijan (SOROS foundation),
Eurasia Foundation.

On the eve of local government elections FSCS conducted training seminars
that instructed their observers. As well, it provided them with
well-designed questionnaires in order to increase the effectiveness of
gathering information on election day.

Based upon observations of all the stages of the election campaign, and
also information gained on election day, the Center issues the preliminary
report as follows:

Despite that the formation of local government bodies in Azerbaijan can be
evaluated as a positive step in the democratization of society and
decentralization of power, the necessary conditions were not created to
conduct free and fair local government elections in the country. Almost
nothing was done by appropriate government bodies to enlighten the
population on the importance of local governments and asking the population
to be active participants in the process.

The law on local government elections reflect some democratic items.
However, this law was not discussed broadly among public organizations.
Political forces could not agree on principal problems such as the
formation of election commissions, by what system will the elections be
conducted, and the determination of the territories of local governments.
As a result, this law could not completely address what was needed in
reality.

The formation of election commissions for local government elections showed
that, despite the organization of the lottery commissions for the formation of
territorial election commissions (TEC) were normal in some election
territories of the Republic (Ali-Bayramli, Salyan, Sumgayit, Mingachevir),
in the majority of the election territories, the formation of the election
commissions were faced with serious law violations. The result was that in
a majority of the election territories the subjects participating in the
elections were not informed either about the place and date of the lottery
or they were not informed generally. Some protocols presented by the local
organizations of some public organizations and political parties and the
residence meetings of the voters were rejected without cause, transparency
was not ensured in the lottery process, and there were open falsifications.
Despite this, in many places the normal activities of accommodating
operating and notary offices became obstacles by local power bodies. For
this reason it was impossible for the majority of the protocols from the
residence meetings of the voters to be confirmed. The same law violations
occurred in the formation of TECs and PECs. Violations were very
substantial in Saatli, Tar-Tar, Ujar, Kurdamir, Yevlakh, Goychay, Lankaran,
Siyazan, Zagatala, Jalilabad, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Khanlar, Balakan,
Gabala, Shaki, Zardab, Gazakh, Tovuz, Gadabay regions, in Nizami and Kapaz
districts of Ganja, in Surakhani, Azizbayov, Sabunchu, Khatai, Nasimi,
Binagadi, Sabayil, Garadagh districts of Baku, where the process of the
formation of the commissions were conducted according to scenarios prepared
in advance. As a result, the content of the majority of the election
commissions, in some cases the whole commission, was organized from the
persons close to local power bodies in the region. As a concrete exapmle
of this, the majority of the chairmen of TECs were the chairmen, deputy
chairmen or members of the TECs or PECs during the 1995 parliamentary and
1998 presidential elections. As a result, election commissions organized in
this way worked under the control of local power bodies.

The analysis of the information gathered shows that in the process of
nominating candidates, and, in the registration stage, the demands of the law
were violated in some cases. These violations were made mainly during the
process of addressing the nomination of candidates, and artificial
obstacles created while presenting the signature lists. In the process of
the nomination of the candidates the election commissions demonstrated
partiality and equal conditions were not assured for everybody.

The observation shows that different from parliamentary and presidential
elections, the pre-election campaign of the candidates were very weak.
One reason for it can be explained because people did not have prior
experience on local government elections. The main reason, however, was
that in the law the candidates themselves were responsible to pay all the
expenses for conducting their pre-election campaign.

One thing must be noted here. As the local government elections were
conducted for the first time in Azerbaijan, the voters needed to be
enlightened on the rules of the elections. However not taking into account
the campaign materials of some international organizations in the mass
media, nothing was done in this field. This led to voters being very
passive in these elections.

The character and scale of the information entered to the Center on
election day give us the chance to give the certain highlights on the
voting.

The information we have shows that in the majority of the election
precincts the observers were allowed to enter the precincts, the ballot
boxes were sealed and stamped, there was information on the candidates
before the voting, there were the samples of the ballots on the wall and
voting began on time.

However, the analysis of the information proved one thing: election day
irregularities were of a larger scale and less sophisticated with
comparison of the law violations that took place in the first stages of the
election campaign. The facts show that even before the voting, the
observers were not allowed to enter some election precincts; they were
demanded to have additional documents that are not meant in the law. These
kind of acts occurred in Jalilabad, Zardab, Imishli, Shaki, Gobustan
regions, in Nizami and Kapaz districts of Ganja, in Surakhani, Sabunchu,
Yasamal and other districts of Baku. In some precincts, even the members
of the commission from opposition parties were not allowed to enter the
precincts.

During the voting, in many places one voter voted for several voters, there
were piles of ballots cut and prepared in advance, piles of ballots were
stuffed into the ballot boxes. Such kind of facts were registered in a
majority of the precincts where the observers of the Center were. In
addition to these violations, in some election territories the
representatives of local power and police illegally interfered in the
process of voting, the mobile boxes were misused, the wills of the members
of the election commissions, the voters and observers were pressured.
The generalization of the information gives us the chance to reflect that
the majority of the law violations registered on the election day took part
during the counting process and while documenting the election results. So
that, after the voting the observers were withdrawn from the majority of
the precincts, they were not given the copy of the protocols on election
results on that day or after, and the local power bodies and police
strengthened their interference in the process. During the counting process
there were cases where election results were falsified. In a majority of
the election commissions, the protocols of PECs on election results in TECs
were changed.

And one thing should be noted, as the voters and mass media were not
informed on the determination of the election returns in the time mentioned
in the law, it was impossible to compare these protocols with the protocols
that the Center has.

So, the observation from all the stages of the election campaign and the
analysis of information gained from approximately 1000 precincts show that
all stages were faced with law violations that could seriously affect the
election results. The character and scale of the law violations do not
give the basis that December 12, 1999 elections in Azerbaijan were free and
fair according to the demands of the law.

As the result of all these, the Center considers it important to note that
the process concerned with the formation of local self government
foundations had the unhealthy character of competition conducted in the
political sphere, rather than being healthy competition conducted in a legal
way. As there is not a real government division in the country in this
case, there were conditions for the elections to be conducted under the
control of executive power bodies. We think that, of course, this tendency
was one of the major reasons why the law violations took place in the
elections, and why there was unequal competition. To isolate the executive
bodies from the election process is the main condition to bring the
political struggle to healthy, democratic process. These elections proved
once more the importance that the election commissions must be formed on
the basis of new principles from low to upper commissions.
Note: In the future FSCS will issue its final report on the results of local
government elections.