The municipal elections were held in Azerbaijan on 17 December, 2004. The elections were held in 118 election districts. 38,041 candidates ran for 21622 places in 2732 municipalities. 95 % of candidates were men, 5 % – women. 35.5 % of candidates are people who are younger than 40, 39.8 % are people who are at age of 40 to 50, 17.4 % – of 50 to 60 and 3 % of candidates are ones who are older than 60. (19-DEC-2004)
Formally, the representatives of 31 parties took part in the elections. In fact the election remind the elections taking place during the soviet times, when the population did not have choice and voted for the “bloc of communists and non-party”. And today majority of candidates represent ruling “New Azerbaijan” party – 21 627 people.
Key opposition parties stay away from elections
The most famous opposition parties “Musavat”, PPFA and Democratic party boycott the elections due to refusal of the authorities to provide democratic election legislation and because the power fully controls the election commissions on all three levels. Besides, the authorities caused trouble to most of candidates from opposition during the period of registration.
However, some opposition parties, AMIP and Liberal among them, take part in the elections, but common number of candidates from these parties is a little more than 500 people.
On the other hand, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish urged opposition parties to participate in the elections. “Their decision to impose boycott to elections surprised me and I don´t approve it. I have tried to explain the opposition party leaders of Musavat, APFP and other political parties that the refusal from the attempts to bring to people´s notice their ideas will not contribute to the development of democracy in the country. The USA will send their observers to monitor the election”. Mr. Harnish stated on 15 December.
Ruling party “YAP” skeptical of opposition’s boycott plan
The ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) executive secretary Ali Ahmadov has given a skeptical assessment to the opposition’s intention to boycott municipal election in the country. “A boycott in a civilized country is not a tool of opposition struggle and to say the least, it is unclear what the opposition is trying to prove. Such as tactics will be benefit them.” Ahmadov continued that the boycott will not have a major impact on preparations for the municipal election and the voting. He said that “by doing so, the opposition will only lose its insignificant trust of the people and the latter will not take political parties boycotting municipal election seriously any more.
Passive participation of people in the elections
Meanwhile, the opposition parties underline that only 10-15% of electors took part in the elections. The representatives of the opposition parties and major NGO community declared about mass falsification and very low activeness of electors.
In contrast, the Central Election Commission (CEC), which is actually dominated and controlled by the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, noted just aftermath the elections that 46% of electors, or more than 2 million people took part in the municipal elections on December 17.
Society has no faith in elections
The reason of low interest to the elections is limited authorities of municipalities. The ever first municipality elections, which were held in 12 December, 1999, did not prove itself and failed to display its power. The weakness of local authorities was pre-determined even while formation of their legislative basis in 1999 which levels them.
As a result, the organs of local self-control in Azerbaijan have turned into formality. The economic basis of municipalities is weak and they do not possess schools, medical services, social-cultural objects, transport, just like in other countries. The municipalities are not in the position to have sources of income, like the funding from rent of land, payment from parking and many other sources. Even the collections from street advertisement are not for the municipalities. And if to take into account that most of municipalities function under the control of the ruling party and perform the will of the Chief Executives, so one can imagine the size of their authorities.
To sum up, municipalities are extremely powerless and Executive chairmen of districts do not allow the municipalities to possess any power.
Political parties’ and NGOs’ approach
“Opposition parties are weak and they have very few supporters. That is why the opposition camp boycotts the elections. By boycotting the elections the opposition parties try to conceal their weakness. New opposition parties should come to the political scene of the country and then constructive relations between the power and the opposition will be established. Political forces, which over the last ten years have lost all presidential and parliamentary elections in the country, cannot pretend to get the respect of society”, this is the opinion by the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Chairman of the opposition-minded Popular Front Party (PFP “reformers”) Ali Kerimli thinks that over the last ten years all elections in Azerbaijan have been falsified. “Inactive participation of majority of population in the municipal elections showed weakness of the authorities, but not the opposition. Mr. Kerimli called President Aliyev not to speak with opponents from the position of force and to follow the norms of the law on freedom of meetings. “Then it will become clear whom people supports”, Kerimli said. Commenting on the thoughts of I.Aliyev on the necessity of renewal of the opposition and her constructive cooperation with the power Kerimli noted that the government of the country dreams to create pocket opposition what this dream will not come true.
Leader of main opposition party “Musavat” Isa Gambar believes that in the parliamentary elections of 2000 and at the presidential elections of 2003 his party and the allies of the opposition parties “Our Azerbaijan” bloc won. “And the whole world and Ilham Aliyev himself know that the elections were falsified” said Mr. Gambar.
“All the elections in Azerbaijan were falsified. Therefore, people have not witnessed any fair and free elections in the country and people do not believe any democratic elections. That’s the main cause of people’s being reluctant to vote. As to the municipalities, ” said Fuad Hasanov, chairman of Against Violence Human Rights Centre (AVHRC).
“People are unwilling to vote, because they suppose that the government will anyhow rig the elections in order to “select” its own candidate, who comes to the government’s interest”, says local human rights activist Saadat Bananyarly.
International community concerned
Such miserable situation with the municipalities does not meet the standards of the Council of Europe (CE). In this respect, Azerbaijan has been criticized by the Congress for Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE). In 2002 the Congress even forwarded the recommendations: to adopt the law which clearly regulates the relations between the state organs and municipalities and determined their authorities. The Congress called the authorities of Azerbaijan to strengthen the financial basis of municipalities by passing them the profitable taxes as well as the state property which is intended for them in accordance with the law. Besides, the congress recommends the competent organs to adopt the law on the metropolitan city which is to provide creation of local public administration for control the board elected directly by the population.
“Despite two years have passed none of them has been fulfilled” the Special envoy of the Secretary General of the CE to Azerbaijan Mats Lindberg stated about it with regret in his interview to TURAN. He says that concrete recommendations on improvement of the laws on status and financial base of municipalities have not been taken into account.
“People elected to municipalities should certainly have new status. It is meaningless to elect people if they would not have any authorities”, M. Lindberg said. Concerning the recommendations of the CLRAE to create municipality of the city Lindberg said that the matter “has not been discussed yet” by the authorities of Azerbaijan. Therefore, the CE proposed to create at the first stage the municipality in the other large city of Azerbaijan, as an experiment. And these recommendations have not been fulfilled also.
In the whole, the legislation of Azerbaijan on municipalities does not meet the provisions of the European Charter for local self-control.
Concerning the change of the makeup of the CEC on the eve of municipal elections Lindbergh noted that recommendations of the Venice commission of the CE and ODIHR on the problem remain in force. “No real work in this direction has been carried out in Azerbaijan” said the special envoy of the CE Secretary General even half a year ago.
The situation has not changed since then.
