municipal elections Azerb

 – The concrete recommendations on improvement of the laws on status and financial base of  municipalities have not been taken into account, says the special  Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Azerbaijan, Mats Lindberg, in an interview with TURAN. – People elected to municipalities should certainly have new status. It is meaningless to elect people if they would not have any authorities Lindberg states. (20-DEC-04).

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.  

International community concerned
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.

Explanation of low attendance
According to the human rights activist Shahla Ismaylova the voters’ attendance was below 20% and so far the Election Code does not contain the “quorum” term, these figures are not misrelated too much – the official announcement of the CEC for the current moment is 45,5% all over the republic. The unprecedented activation of the population with the real belief to change the regime failed, as the millions of hopes. The unwillingness of international community to strong actions, curtained under the diplomatic statements caused, the worst feeling in Azeri society – the feeling of being betrayed. For this very reason, it would be naïve to think that this year the municipal elections would attract the attention of national forces to participate and struggle. The sad jokes about elections via selections reflect not only the mood but the truth in today’s Azerbaijan, Shahla Ismaylova writes in her article . 
-Today, the reality shows that the word “elections” causes sad smile in Azerbaijan society. Our country has great experience of monitoring the fraudulent elections in the past 10 years, the top of which was during the presidential elections. We had the whole pack of horror last year – from roundabout voting up to severe street battles says Shahla Ismayilova.

Falsification
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 from the Int´Human Rights League. Council of Europe .