What organizations will monitor the presidential elections of Azerbaijan?

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, Baku to monitor the extraordinary elections The presidency of Azerbaijan, which will be held in this country on February 7 (18 Bahman), invited seven international and regional organizations, but the absence of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe among these organizations caused tension between this organization and the Republic of Azerbaijan. /p>

Some representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe assessed the non-invitation of this organization to monitor the elections by the Azerbaijani government as a clear violation of all cooperation rules.

The Republic of Azerbaijan has invited another European organization – the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe – to monitor the elections, and the electoral committee of the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of this organization is now in Baku.

However, with the exception of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, election experts have questioned the effectiveness of some of the invited organizations, as they do not have the professional methodology to monitor elections.

In this report The questions raised about the elections of the Republic of Azerbaijan and how to invite other organizations to monitor these elections will be answered.

1. Which organizations will monitor the presidential elections of Azerbaijan?

Seven international and regional organizations will monitor the early presidential elections of Azerbaijan. They are as follows:

• Department of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
• Union of Commonwealth of Independent States
• Organization of Islamic Cooperation
• Shanghai Cooperation Organization
• Organization for Democracy and Economic Development
• Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organization
• Turkish Countries Organization

Among these organizations, the Supervisory Board The Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have announced that they have started monitoring the presidential elections in Azerbaijan.

The Organization for Democracy and Economic Development said that the group The observer of this organization will arrive in Azerbaijan on February 6 and start the monitoring process on the election day. However, so far no response has been given by the other organizations.

There are sharp differences between the invited organizations in terms of election monitoring experience.

Among the international organizations invited to monitor the elections, there is one that will carry out this mission for the first time (the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organization).

Britain, which is in the Union Europe does not have a representative, it has also said that they will send a monitoring delegation to the Republic of Azerbaijan, but the British monitoring group will not come separately, but will join this process as part of the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. /p>

There is a possibility that America will also send an observer, but there is still no official information about this.

Organizations monitor the elections within the framework of the principles international elections or the election monitoring charter of the organization they represent.

As a rule, international and regional organizations are based on the invitation of the country where the election is held and not through personal request , participate in the monitoring process.

2. Why is the supervision of invited organizations questioned?

Anar Mamdoli, the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Education Center, believes that many invited organizations In the Republic of Azerbaijan, they do not have a professional election monitoring method and do not follow international standards for election monitoring. Therefore, such monitoring groups are not taken seriously in the world.

Except for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the charter of the monitoring mission of this organization is available only on the website of the Commonwealth of Independent States among the organizations invited to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

However, Anar Mamdoli believes that although there is a constitution of the Commonwealth of Independent States regarding election monitoring and a convention on the democratic process of elections, the opinion of this body is not mentioned in international election reports. It has not happened, because the process of selecting the people involved in the observation is done in an “opaque” way.

But Jebi Qoliev, a member of the Azerbaijan Parliament from the New Azerbaijan Party, considered these claims to be absurd. /p>

According to him, the people who came to Azerbaijan from other organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, to monitor the presidential elections, have a lot of experience in this field.

Most of the observers sent by these organizations are representatives who represent in the parliaments of other countries or are members of influential non-governmental organizations operating in those countries. These are serious people and they are chosen from among other influential people as supervisors. Therefore, I consider the accusations of the lack of transparency of the decisions here to be absurd. They are not idle people who come here to manipulate.

According to the laws of the Commonwealth of Independent States regarding the election observation mission, this organization requests the member states of the organization and asks them to send their observers. Send to monitor the elections. These people are sent as observers to the countries where the elections are held without any evaluation or selection.

Anar Mamdali says that this is against the principles of international election monitoring and says that the recruitment process The election of observers should be done based on announcements. According to him, the observers of 6 organizations invited to Azerbaijan, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, are not elected by announcement, but are appointed by the decision of the local government. They are sent to the country where the elections are held. But the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe announces to monitor the elections or the European Parliament announces internally that we are going to Azerbaijan to monitor the elections, anyone who is interested should take action.

At this time, the factions sit and discuss. Each faction has a quota. Each sends two or three observers. Those observers will gather themselves and choose the leader of the mission.

The Union of Commonwealth of Independent States has announced that it will start monitoring the early presidential elections of Azerbaijan on January 17, and this monitoring mission will be headed by Sergey Lebedev is the secretary general of this union.

The Union of Commonwealth of Independent States has started the mission of monitoring the elections of the member countries since 2001 and for the first time in the 2003 presidential elections, this mission was carried out in the republic Azerbaijan did it.

Another point that election expert Anar Mamdoli paid attention to was the choice of two organizations invited to Azerbaijan to monitor early presidential elections, namely the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development and the Organization The youth is the non-commitment movement. The Organization for Democracy and Economic Development said that the organization will send an observation mission consisting of 6 people and they will be headed by the secretary general of the organization, Azerbaijani diplomat Altai Efendiyev. , will be in charge.

Altay Efendiev has been in this position since 2016 and before that he worked in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was ambassador to several countries.

The Youth Organization of the Non-Aligned Movement was established two years after the summit of this organization, which was held in Baku in 2019, and was registered in 2022. In addition to the head of the organization whose head office is located in Baku, out of the total of 19 people present in its secretariat, 18 people are Azerbaijani.

There is no information about The experience and methods of election monitoring have not been included and this organization has been invited for the first time as an international organization to monitor the elections of Azerbaijan.

Election expert Anar Mamdoli said: the invitation of the government of Azerbaijan from Such incompetent organizations are caused by political interests. Governments use such organizations to talk about the elections in the domestic media and try to create the impression that the elections were held in accordance with international standards. Azerbaijan said: These claims are not true. In areas within the framework of election campaigns, the representatives of international organizations that the government of Azerbaijan invited to the country to monitor the elections were with them, and each of those organizations take their mission very seriously.

3. Which organizations were not invited?

Unlike the previous elections, this time Baku invited the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to monitor early presidential elections in This country did not send.

According to election expert Anar Mamdali, in addition to the mentioned European organizations, American organizations have not been invited to monitor Azerbaijan’s elections for 20 years.

In a statement issued on January 15, the European Parliament announced that this institution will not monitor the elections in Azerbaijan and will not comment on the election process and its results.

Some representatives of the European Parliamentary Assembly assessed the non-invitation of this organization to monitor the elections by the Azerbaijani government as a “clear violation of all cooperation laws” and called this action “unforgivable”.

The Republic of Azerbaijan became a full member of the Council of Europe in 2001, but due to the human rights situation in this country and not being invited to the elections, the activities of the representatives of Azerbaijan in this Council were stopped for a year.

According to Anar Mamdoli, the main reason for not calling organizations like the Council of Europe is that organizations with electoral principles are not in the interest of countries like the Republic of Azerbaijan. Because they come and present a principled position and evaluate their criteria to see if these elections are in line with international standards or not. Therefore, instead of such organizations, Azerbaijan invites inexperienced organizations close to the government to come and create a common opinion and give opinions according to the interests of the Azerbaijan government. Legal and State Building of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan does not agree with these accusations and says: Azerbaijan is currently experiencing the strongest period in the history of statehood, so the current government does not need to manipulate. We have freed Karabakh from occupation, we have guaranteed our territorial integrity, and today the current government does not need this kind of manipulation or competing in other ways in the political struggle. People who want to check the democracy of elections can participate in the contest, run for office and choose their methods of struggle. But if this is not the case, it is wrong and unacceptable to carry out a defamation campaign against democracy and election transparency. Kurde, in an interview with reporters, said: “Inviting dozens of fake monitoring organizations is not enough.” Meanwhile, there are two election monitoring boards, and they are organizations of which the Republic of Azerbaijan is a member, that is, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

criticized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Samad Sidaf, head of the delegation of the Azerbaijani Parliament in the European Parliament, said in an interview with reporters that he considers these accusations to be biased.

p dir=”RTL”>Anar Mamdali believes that inviting organizations that do not have a monitoring methodology shows that the government of Azerbaijan is trying to increase the quantity and wants to send the message to the society that there are many international monitors.

4. What is the principle of international election monitoring?

In 2005, the United Nations approved the declaration of principles and rules of conduct for international election monitoring, and until today 55 organizations international and regional have signed this document.

This declaration foresees the collection and impartial analysis of information in the election process as well as the prevention of violations and fraud without interfering and hindering the elections and to the governments Recommends to improve the election process.

Only one of the international organizations that is invited to this country to monitor the presidential elections of Azerbaijan on February 7; That is, the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has signed this declaration.

Candidates

The Central Election Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan registered 7 candidates out of a total of 17 candidates in the early presidential elections. This means that on election day, more than 6,300,000 voters will choose from among these 7 candidates.

They are:

1. Ilham Aliyev, candidate of New Azerbaijan Party

2. Zahid Aruj, independent candidate

3. Razi Noorullahif, candidate of the National Front Party

4. Fazel Mustafa, the candidate of the Great Formation Party

5. Elshad Musayev, candidate of the Great Azerbaijan Party

6. Gudrat Hasanqoliyev, candidate of the United People’s Front of Azerbaijan

7. Fouad Aliyev, independent candidate

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