From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Aug 28 2002 - 10:17:13 EDT
Referendum "totally falsified" in Azeri districts - paper
The 24 August referendum on constitutional amendments was "totally
falsified" in Azerbaijani regions, an article entitled "Even the dead came
to vote" and carried by opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat wrote on 25
August.
The number of people who came to vote at polling stations was exaggerated in
all constituencies. All of them reported high turnout even before the
voting ended, whereas opposition observers said that at best only 20-30 per
cent of voters attended the referendum.
Opposition observers were not allowed to enter many polling stations in the
Naxcivan, Xacmaz, Davaci, Qubadli, Zangilan, Zaqatala, Lankaran and
Calilabad constituencies. The reason was that they allegedly had not
registered with district electoral commissions.
Education Minister Misir Mardanov visited polling stations in Ismayilli
District on 24 August and called on people to come and vote, which was in
violation of the law.
The paper said that teachers went to polling station No 32 in Kapaz-Nizami
constituency No 33 in Ganca and cast their votes every half an hour. The
same happened at polling stations Nos 1 and 3 in Zaqatala.
The chairman of the Davaci District branch of the Musavat Party, Kamil
Seyidhasanli, reported that teachers had gathered at schools where polling
stations were located so that if international observers came to monitor
the voting, the teachers could be used to prove high turnout.
People were brought to polling stations in buses in the Kapaz-Nizami and
Qubadli-Zangilan constituencies.
The paper reported that police stopped residents of Sumqayit going to Baku
in the morning of the 24th. Over 1,000 gathered at the bus station by 0900.
The people were told that they would not be allowed to leave Sumqayit, if
they did not cast their votes at the referendum. This provoked a row
between the people and policemen, and the police had to give up.
A member of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party, R. Asadov, was arrested
at polling station No 20 in electoral district No 38 in Sumqayit and taken
to the town police department.
Officials of the Xanlar District branch of the reformist wing of the
People's Front of Azerbaijan Party, Zahid Ismayilov and Elnur Sadiqli, who
were observers at the district electoral commission, were taken to a police
station in the morning of 24 August. The paper reported that they had been
subjected to pressure and were beaten up there.
Two policemen, the head of the electoral commission and a member of the
ruling New Azerbaijan Party used force against an observer from the Musavat
Party, Kamil Xudaverdiyev, in Zaqatala, when the latter tried to stop a
voter from stuffing 20 ballot papers in the ballot box.
Observers from the Democratic Party, M. Ismayilov, and from the Musavat
Party, Q. Calilov, were removed from a polling station in Zaqatala, when
they protested against stuffing ballot papers in ballot boxes.
An electoral commission member from the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party
tried to stop a voter, who stuffed 100 ballot papers in the ballot box, at
polling station No 29 in Agdam and was forced to leave the polling station.
Policemen sent off another commission member from the opposition, Qadir
Baxsiyev, at polling station No 47.
Members of the New Azerbaijan Party were registered as observers from the
People's Front of Azerbaijan Party in Calilabad.
In Bilasuvar and Lankaran, votes were cast even on behalf of dead people,
the paper said.
Source: Yeni Musavat, Baku in Azeri 25 Aug 02 p 4
BBC Mon TCU 270802 ha/sa
|
