IPA CIS Observers Started Short-Term Monitoring of Elections in Azerbaijan Republic

The Observer Team from the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly started short-term monitoring in Baku for the snap elections to the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic scheduled for 9 February 2020. The delegation is headed by First Deputy Speaker of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sodiq Safoyev.

The observers from among the MPs from the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the IPA CIS Council Secretariat staff members held a number of meetings with the participants of the electoral process.

Firstly, the observers visited the district election commission №29 and the local election commission №3 of the Sabail district of Baku.

The heads of the district and local election commissions told about the compliance with the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic during the forming of the election commission, distribution of voter identifications, and the work of the Central Election Commission on training of the members of the commissions in the run-up to the elections.

The Head of the district election commission noted the increased activity of the youth during the electoral campaign. The Head of the local election commission №3 told on the experience of the use of the modern technical equipment preventing the falsification during the voting. He demonstrated to the observers the new electronic device which allows to identify voters and their registration in a particular constituency based on the new identity cards with no indication of residence registration. This device is used for the first time in elections to the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Sodiq Safoyev informed the heads of the election commissions on the specifics of the monitoring carried out by the IPA CIS and noted that the mandate of the team is to collect as much information as possible in order to prepare an objective conclusion on the results of the monitoring.

At the campaign office of the opposition political party “Umid” (Party of Hope), the IPA CIS observers met with its leader Igbal Agazade. He noted that the party actively uses the Internet opportunities of the campaigning, including the web-site of the party, as well as in the social networks of each of its candidates.

Igbal Agazade mentioned that there were violations in his constituency № 35 of the Khatain district of Baku by the opponents of the party. The party “Umid” is going to send about 100 observers to the constituencies of its candidates.

At the meeting, Coordanator of the Observer Team Sodiq Safoyev told about the results of the long-term monitoring of the current elections and on the attempt of the IPA CIS MPs to cover a substantial part of the polling stations in Baku and in the regions of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Tomorrow, on 8 February 2020, the IPA CIS Observer Team will meet with Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic Mazahir Panahov, the leadership of the Constitutional Court and the leaders of the political parties participating in the elections.