IDI reports on violations during pre-election campaign in Azerbaijan

In the evening of October 30, the NGO "Institute for Democratic Initiatives" (IDI) has published the second interim report on the monitoring of the pre-election campaign of the parliamentary elections. The report covers the phase of the pre-election campaign held on October 10-28.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 28, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev signed a resolution to schedule the next elections to the National Assembly for November 1.

According to the report, the pre-election campaign for the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan was accompanied by pressure on opposition candidates, use of administrative resources, and violation of the principle of candidates' equality.

Members of the IDI believe that the reduction of the phase of the pre-election campaign down to three weeks has severely restricted the candidates' opportunities in holding the pre-election campaign. Besides, according to the authors of the report, non-participation in the elections of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), which represents a significant part of the opposition, the lack of normal conditions for the "Musavat" Party, movement "ReAl" and other agencies have resulted in "faintness of the pre-election campaign."

Since at the phase of registration of candidates, a significant portion of members of the political parties has not been registered, only the ruling party "Yeni Azerbaijan" has been granted the right of free access to the TV Channels for the pre-election campaign.

According to the authors of the report, the prices offered by the media engaged in the pre-election campaign for a fee, have appeared to be too high for the majority of candidates.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.