Written by HRH Baku/Shahla Ismailova; materials from CEC, Information agencies Turan Info and Day.AZ,  Interview with Arif Hajily.

On the 13-th of May there were held rerun Parliamentary elections in 10 districts of Azerbaijan. Despite of hundreds protocols on human rights violations, falsifications and irregularities, the delegation of international organizations recognized the May elections “a progress in the voting process” in comparison to November elections. (21-MAY-2006)

The US Embassy in Azerbaijan supported the evaluation of OSCE/ODIHR and appreciated the use of ink margining, fair registration of candidates, operative placement of election results on CEC website during the day. At the same time, the Embassy noted a few law violations during the pre-election campaign and encourages the government to take measure to investigate the facts and improve the “mistakes”.

Opposition
Neither the opposition parties nor the majority of civil society organizations recognized the elections democratic and fair. Meanwhile the government as well as the new deputies find the elections fitting to international standards.

Musavat
Arif Hajily, the deputy head of Musavat Party, which run his candidacy for the second time from Zagatala district, stated that the government used lots of administrative resources to support the pro-governmental candidate from the district. “We have got plenty of documents and even the video records proving that the elections in Zagatala district was far away from democratic”.

National Independence Party
The NIP did not recognize the elections of 13 May 2006. The statements of the party says “these elections like the elections of 6 November 2005 did not reflect the will of people. The candidates were not given the equal opportunities, executive and municipal authorities interfered into the course of voting”.

Azadlig Bloc
Ali-KerimliAli Kerimli from “Azadliq bloc” stated that the elections were conducted in the way the Azadlig bloc predicted. He noted that despite of the boycott to participate, they followed the election course and results, which showed the high level of falsification during the elections.

For the Sake of Free and Fair Elections
Along with numerous violations, the Coalition “For the Sake of Free and Fair Elections” headed by Anar Mamedli, observed the low level of people’s participation in elections (10-12%), which is a sign of lack of people’s trust to fair elections.

New deputies
Thus, as a result of rerun elections, conducted on the 13-th of May, there are 10 new deputies to the Parliament:

1. Tovuz-Gazakh-Agstafa district #106 – Ilyas Ismayilov (71,14%), the chair of pro-governmental party “Justice”
2. Aghdam district # 119 – Bakhtiyar Sadigov (63,03%), a member of ruling party “Yeni Azerbaijan”
3. Jalilabad-Masally-Bilesuvar district #69 – Fazail Ibrahimli (49,28%), former MP, non-party
4. Zagatala district 110 – Khikmet Atayev (65,02%), – a member of ruling party “Yeni Azerbaijan”
5. Second Nizami district #38 of Ganja city – Asaf Hajiyev (62,60%), member of ruling party “Yeni Azerbaijan”
6. Second Binegedi district #9 – Rafael Jabrailov (31,87%), non-party
7. Second Surakhan district #31 – Ahmed Veliyev (72,55%), member of ruling party “Yeni Azerbaijan”
8. Second Sumgait district #42 – Mejid Kerimov (81,80%), member of ruling party “Yeni Azerbaijan”
9. Sumgait-Absheron district #44 – Baba Tagiyev (64,77%), member of ruling party “Yeni Azerbaijan”
10. Gedabey district #103 – Rafig Mamedgasanov (56,64%), member of ruling party “Yeni Azerbaijan”