Background Briefing

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Official Positions in the Lead-up to the 2005 Election Campaign

In the lead up to the 2005 parliamentary election campaign, which began on September 7, there were some positive signs from the government that it was willing to respond to calls to improve the political environment before the elections. President Ilham Aliev continued to authorize the release of political prisoners through presidential decree,11 and on May 11 he signed a decree forbiding interference by local government authorities in the electoral process.12 Although the decree was mainly a restatement of the existing law, the international community welcomed it as a positive sign of political will to hold free and fair elections.13 On June 4, local authorities gave permission to the opposition to hold a rally in Baku, ending a de facto ban on opposition gatherings since the October 2003 election (see below for more details).

However, at the same time the authorities refused to heed calls from the international community to amend the electoral code in compliance with OSCE and Council of Europe recommendations.14 In particular, the authorities refused to change the composition of the government-dominated election commissions, a factor that in past elections has played a central role in facilitating falsifications of the vote count. It refused to eliminate restrictions on Azerbaijani nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive foreign funding from registering observers, a restriction that effectively bars nearly all local NGOs from registering to observe the elections.15 The government also refused to introduce inking of voters’ fingers as a mechanism for reducing the risk of multiple voting, a relatively simple measure that international election experts believe to be crucial if fraud through multiple voting is to be avoided.16

In mid-2005, the courts expunged the convictions of seven opposition leaders imprisoned for the post-election violence in October 2003, allowing them to stand as candidates in the parliamentary elections. However, over 100 other people who had been imprisoned for the same reasons were precluded from standing as candidates because of their criminal convictions.17 In the months before the period of registration of candidates, government pressure on opposition party members increased. A stark example of this was the April 7, 2005 police beating of Isgender Hemidov, a former political prisoner and chairman of the National Democratic Party.18


[11] Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Political

Prisoners in Azerbaijan, May 31, 2005, Doc. 10564.

[12] Executive Order of President of Republic of Azerbaijan on Improvement of Election Practice in Republic of Azerbaijan, May 11, 2005, [online] http://www.president.az/s22_decrees/_decrees_e.html (retrieved October 24, 2005). The decree also ordered government officials to facilitate the realization of exit polls for the elections. The U.S. government is funding the provision of an exit poll for the November 2005 elections. United States Agency for International Development, “U.S. Government-Supported Exit Poll Up-Date,” press release, September 26, 2005.

[13] “U.S. Embassy Statement on Right of Peaceful Assembly,” press release of the U.S. embassy in Baku, May 20, 2005. “Former PACE Head Says Marking of Electors Fingers with Special Ink Necessary,” Turan Information Agency, September 5, 2005. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Azerbaijan, June 22, 2005, PACE Resolution 1456 (2005).

[14] “Republic of Azerbaijan Presidential Election 15 October 2003 OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Report,” OSCE, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Warsaw, November 12, 2003, and “Joint Recommendations on the Electoral Law and the Electoral Administration in Azerbaijan,” Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, adopted at the 8th meeting of the Council for Democratic Elections and endorsed by the Venice Commission at its 58th Plenary Session, March 12-13, 2004. The electoral code was adopted in May 2003 and has been amended on six occasions, most recently in June 2005. The OSCE found, however, that “the recent amendments are mostly of a technical nature, and for the most part did not address longstanding recommendations from the OSCE/ODIHR and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission.” OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission,  Republic of Azerbaijan – Parliamentary Elections 2005, Interim Report No.1 (5-23 September 2005).

[15] NGOs circumvent this restriction by having each of their observers register  individually. However, individual registration is a cumbersome solution, particularly for election monitoring groups that plan to have hundreds of short-term observers.

[16] Human Rights Watch interview with international elections experts, Baku, September 29, 2005, and Baku, October 3, 2005. On October 25, President Aliev signed an instruction recommending that the parliament and Central Election Commission allow the use of special invisible ink on election day. However, according to international election experts, even by early October it was too late to introduce invisible ink by voting day, since it would be necessary to import special lamps to view the ink and provide training for polling station officials.

[17] This included Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, a religious freedom activist and supporter of the opposition, who applied to court to expunge his conviction. The court rejected his application, as did an appeal court. E-mail communication from Ilgar Ibrahimoglu to Human Rights Watch, August 17, 2005.

[18] Isgender Hemidov told Human Rights Watch that police arrested him and five associates and beat them with batons, transported him with a black cloth bag on his head, and threatened to “destroy him” unless he left the country or ceased his political activities. According to Hemidov, the next day he was taken to the local court, where the judge gave him an official warning for petty hooliganism and released him. He said that three of his associates were sentenced to up to twelve days in prison on the same charges. Hemidov told Human Rights Watch that the beating left him with a broken hand and scratches and bruises to his body and face. Human Rights Watch interview with Isgender Hemidov, Chairman of the National Democratic Party, Baku, April 17, 2005 and with Rena Sadaddinova, Azerbaijan Foundation of Democracy Development and Human Rights Protection, Baku, April 16 and 17, 2005. A Human Rights Watch researcher saw Hemidov's hand in a cast. There are various spellings of Hemidov’s name, including Iskandar Hamidov.


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