The international community had called on the government to adopt several of these measures, which if properly implemented, would have a positive effect on the election environment, and improve the voting process on election day.

In response to the executive order, parliament lifted the ban on foreign-funded NGOs from acting as observers in the elections on October 28.² Similarly, the Central Election Commission decided to use invisible ink to mark voters' fingers and has initiated steps to import the necessary equipment.³ It remains unclear whether steps have been taken to introduce the other measures called for in the executive order.

The late introduction of the executive order, however, makes at least one of its provisions entirely meaningless: the decision to lift the ban on observers from NGOs with foreign funding came after the deadline for registering observers expired on October 27.⁴ The executive order’s late introduction also puts the effective implementation of the other measures in doubt. For example, international election experts told Human Rights Watch that the use of invisible ink to avoid multiple voting can only work effectively if officials are properly trained and the necessary equipment is available to detect the ink.⁵ The time left before the elections is clearly too short to conduct such training, even if the authorities manage to import the required equipment.

The executive order has not changed the general atmosphere in Azerbaijan. For weeks there has been a strong pro-government bias in the media, local government officials continue to campaign on behalf of government sponsored candidates and pressure government employees, particularly teachers, to support these candidates, the government continues to limit freedom of assembly, and opposition activists have been arrested and otherwise intimidated. These abuses have continued since the order was issued.

For example, Human Rights Watch has received information that on October 31 and November 1 in the city of Ganja, local government authorities ordered that school classes be suspended while teachers attend a meeting with a candidate for the Yeni Azerbaijan Party (New Azerbaijan Party, the ruling government party).⁶ In another case, a member of a local election commission, who is an opposition supporter, told Human Rights Watch that he continued to remain under constant surveillance by two law enforcement officers.⁷ Harassment of family members of candidates also continues: According to an independent candidate, on November 1 police visited his close relative at work on two occasions and demanded that he go to the police station. There, a police investigator pushed and swore at him. This followed job dismissal threats from local government authorities to another close relative of the candidate.⁸

The authorities also arrested several more opposition supporters as part of its investigation into the alleged coup plot. Although Human Rights Watch is not in a position to assess whether a coup plot indeed existed, the arrest on October 27 of Eldar Salaev, a well-known academic in his seventies, raised concern that the government is using the alleged plot as an excuse for a wider crackdown on the opposition.