“The disputed presidential elections of October 2003 and rigged municipal elections of 2005 in Azerbaijan proved that the local NGOs should work dynamically and actively with the general public, particularly with those living in remote areas. For the reason that these people are lack of the awareness on basic electoral rights and other fundamental civil rights”, says Fuad Hasanov, the director of the “Against Violence” Human Rights Centre (AVHRC). (10-FEB-2005)

In the October 2003 presidential elections, the government carried out a well-organized campaign of fraud to ensure victory for Ilham Aliev, in front of the largest international election monitoring team ever deployed in the country. The international observers and organizations have repeatedly underlined that all the Azerbaijani elections were held well beyond the international standards.

Fighting against fraud
 “As the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are expected to be held in November 2005, the local human rights organizations should mobilise all the efforts to raise the awareness of the society on voting procedures and active participation in elections. At present, we should focus on purging the cynicism in society against free and fair elections.” says AVHRC director.

“100 rules against 100 falsifications”
Thanks to the financial support of the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation (OSI –AF), the AVHRC started a project on raising the public awareness to struggle against the election falsification in the regions of Azerbaijan. The project, “100 rules against 100 falsifications”, intends to hold systematic seminars and trainings in remote provinces, to apply and analyze the methods against election falsifications, and to publish a brochure.The seminars have already been realized in four districts – Balakan, Masalli, Lenkoran and Sheki. “People are interested in such seminars. The members of election commissions, local representatives of the political parties – Azerbaijan Democrat Party, Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, Azerbaijan National Independence Party, Adalat (Justice) Party and local NGOs attended the seminars.

The participants mulled over key mechanisms for free and fair elections and developed effective methods of struggling against election falsifications, theoretical and practical details of the problem during the seminar. The previous elections were comparatively discussed and the falsifications, violations of law and human rights in last municipal elections were widely analyzed. 
In the course of the seminars the participants promoted proposals for holding the forthcoming parliamentary elections on the basis of free and fair principles.

Background info on AVHRC
Established on June 2002, the AVHRC is non-profit, non-governmental organization, which maintains monitoring, humanitarian research and enlightenment for establishment civil society, development its public institutions and the protection of human rights.
Moreover, the Center monitors the violation of right to Free Gathering, the situation with prisons, the rehabilitation of the victims of human and documents torture cases and other breaches of human rights, international and domestic legal procedural norms. The first action of the center was to research the “Nardaran events” happened on June 3, 2002.