Various kinds of fraud were noticeable during the recent municipal elections
in Azerbaijan, according to an article in the Azerbaijani newspaper
'Zerkalo' on 14th December. By law, the police are not allowed to be
present in polling stations, but some policemen did go inside, which was
explained by local electoral commissions by the fact that it was too cold
outside. Observers pointed out that lists of the "winners" were prepared in
advance and that extra ballot papers were put into the ballot boxes. The
paper also criticized the election campaign as candidates were not very
active and only got onto TV the day before the election, so the electorate
had great difficulty choosing who to vote for. The following are excerpts
from the report in 'Zerkalo' by M. Bagirov and A. Rashidoglu entitled
"Elections a la Azerbaijan"

[Subhead] One more step towards democracy or a blow to the country's image?

Last Sunday [12th December] the first municipal elections were held in
Azerbaijan. As was predicted, the turnout in these elections was low. The
majority of polling stations faced the problem of providing a quorum.
Unfortunately, the elections themselves and the results obtained by
observers, including international ones, showed that there was a big
question mark over how democratic they were.

[Subhead] Local observers

The elections were observed by the political parties which had put forward
their candidates and by public organizations. The most comprehensive
information about the course of the elections was disseminated by the For A
Civic Society Centre, whose group of observers consisted of 4,000 people
and covered almost all the polling stations in the country.
Reports of violations recorded by observers at polling stations all over
Azerbaijan were increasing in number by the hour on the day of the
elections.

There were several types of violations. These included interference by the
police and representatives of the local executive authorities during the
voting process. The presence of police at polling stations is against the
law. [passage omitted: details of violations at various polling stations]
When our correspondent wondered about this, some of the chairmen of the
electoral commissions (Binagadi District [Baku]) explained that it was too
cold for the policemen to stand outside in the open air. [passage omitted:
more details of violations at polling stations]

All these facts are only a small fraction of the violations which were
allowed to happen in the municipal elections. Documents signed by the
observers have been drawn up in instances when the law was violated.

[Subhead] Reaction of political parties

The tough reaction by representatives of the opposition parties to the
elections was almost as if predetermined. According to the words of the
chief of the electoral headquarters of the People's Front of Azerbaijan
Party [PFAP], Alimammad Nuriyev, played back yesterday [13th December] at
the press club, the PFAP appointed about 4,000 observers to monitor the
voting process and they recorded hundreds of instances of violations.
In Nuriyev's opinion the whole voting process on 12th December can be
divided into three phases. The first - till 1500 [1100 gmt] - was a
relatively "democratic" one during which violations were of a "sporadic"
nature. In the second phase, which lasted till 1900 [1500 gmt], the number
of violations started rising sharply and information about lists of winners
in the elections prepared in advance started to appear.

And, finally, the third phase, which, according to Nuriyev, continued even
throughout the night, was the time of the mass falsification of the voting
results. The PFAP functionary depicted the elections as "unfree,
undemocratic and unfair". However, Nuriyev thinks they managed to double
the number of their supporters by taking part in the elections.

The same ideas were also expressed by his counterpart from the Musavat
Party, Arif Hajiyev, who said that observers from his party had been
present at almost all the polling stations. Hajiyev said that the
authorities prepare surprises at all the elections in Azerbaijan. The major
surprise of the municipal elections was the statements by the electoral
commissions that they would count the votes the day after the elections.
Hajiyev explained that a number of lists of "winners" prepared in advance
also included names of representatives of the opposition parties because
the authorities wanted to give a democratic appearance to the demonstration
of the people's will on 12th December. The Musavat functionary is sure that
"the elections are not only undemocratic, but their results do not reflect
people's opinion even approximately".

[Subhead] International observers

The viewpoint of the experts from the Institute of Democracy in Eastern
Europe, who observed the municipal elections in Azerbaijan and visited a
number of polling stations in the capital, is noteworthy. "There was an
impression," one of the experts, (?Ivlian Khaindrava), thought, "that the
electoral commissions had a plan to boost the number of voters up to 25 per
cent."

(?Petruska Sustrova), an observer from the Czech Republic, thinks the low
interest of the people in the elections was caused by insufficient
promotional work. She expressed her fear that the final results of the
elections would be rigged. According to her the elections conducted in
Azerbaijan were UNDOUBTEDLY A STEP TOWARDS DEMOCRACY, HOWEVER, NOT A STEP
BY A HUMAN BEING BUT BY AN ANIMAL (capitalized by us - editor).
According to another expert from the Institute of Democracy in Eastern
Europe, (?Fridon Sakvarelidze), the very fact that the electoral
commissions included the heads and deputy heads of schools where voting
took place is sufficient to put in doubt the existence of democracy during
the elections.

"We have visited 60 polling stations", said the head of the group of
international observers from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
of the Council of Europe, Alan Lloyd, "and the elections were generally
held in a free and open atmosphere. But at the same time we recorded a
number of serious violations which could affect the results of the voting."
Among the violations, Lloyd especially noted the presence of unauthorized
people who might influence the voting process, the absence of appropriate
control over mobile ballot boxes, cases of "additionally inserting" extra
ballot papers and a divergency between the number of ballot papers and the
number of voters. The head of the group of international observers said
that all these facts would be reflected in their final statement.

[Subhead] Final remarks

The only thing left to note is that the preparations for the municipal
elections in Azerbaijan themselves were not adequate. The election campaign
was not held at the appropriate level, at best the candidates limited
themselves to putting up their posters and they "broke into" TV broadcasts
only one day before the elections. For this precise reason, on the day of
the elections, the majority of voters knew nothing about their candidates.
As far as the technical side of the issue is concerned, not everything is
all right here either. At some polling stations the polling booths were
pitied by people who had seen the bombings of World War II. Notification
papers were not delivered to people in advance and there were many other
problems.

Here we can recall Interior Minister Ramil Usubov's statement about his
intention to charge people violating the law. There are instances, but it
can be assumed that as in previous years it will be impossible to prove
them in court. The events of 12th December will probably fill up the
opposition's files, which already contain information about the last
parliamentary and presidential elections.

PS A total of 52.6 per cent of voters participated in the municipal
elections, in other words the elections really have taken place. Secretary
of the Central Electoral Commission [CEC] Ilgar Abbasov said this to
Caspian news agency. He said that the voters had been fairly active but the
CEC secretary does not have information about where the turnout was lower
or higher.

Abbasov also said that the CEC has not yet received any documentations about
the results of the elections from the constituencies. "As for complaints
about violations which have come to the CEC, we will sort them out," the
CEC secretary said.

Source: 'Zerkalo', Baku, in Russian 14 Dec 99 pp1,2
BBC Mon TCU 161299/** sh/sa