Azerbaijan votes in election boycotted by the opposition

Voters within the oil-rich Caspian Ocean nation of Azerbaijan cast ballots Sun.in a parliamentary election that’s expected to secure the ruling party bash’s dominance.

The United States notes that Azerbaijan held parliamentary elections on November 1.

OSCE/ODIHR and a few other circles have no ground to express any opinion about the parliamentary election in Azerbaijan, because those organizations have violated their mandate, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said on Nov.3.

“The elections to Milli Majlis were held in accordance with Azerbaijan’s Constitution and Electoral Code and conformed to the generally accepted standards of democratic elections”, says a statement of the CIS monitoring mission read out by Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee and Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev.

Central Election Commission (CEC) chief Mazahir Panahov said on November 2 that Aliyev’s party took 69 seats in the country’s 125-seat parliament, according to preliminary data. “Azadlig 2015” block, which has consolidated 7 opposition parties, also nominated its independent candidates.

In this regard, sending 400 observers to Azerbaijan with a population of 9.6 million does not correspond to any logic and is disproportionate.

The leading opposition parties in the tightly-controlled Caucasus nation, which include the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), the Musavat party and the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan all boycotted the polls.

Another major opposition party, the Republican Alternative (REAL), said it would not recognise the results. “[Established] opposition groups are not participating, you have got a main opposition leader sitting in jail, and you have got the country’s top [independent] election monitor sitting in jail”. But worldwide observers had refused to monitor the vote due to restrictions by authorities. A few Musavat candidates reportedly have said they would stay on the ballot despite the party leadership’s decision.

Amnesty global has protested what it described as “sustained and severe attack” on the freedom of expression in Azerbaijan in the run-up to the parliamentary election.

ODIHR usually sends 400 or 500 observers to the OSCE member states with a population of over 100 million people.

Azerbaijani authorities have dismissed such criticism as unfounded.