Municipal elections will be held in Azerbaijan on December 17, 2004.  According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), 21650 members to 2735 municipalities will be elected during the polls. At present, there are a total of 4,462,000 electorates in Azerbaijan. During the elections, 38,866 candidates will run for municipal seats.(10-DEC-2004)


Over 300 local observers to monitor municipal elections
More than 300 local observers have been registered with the Central Election Commission (CEC) to monitor municipal elections to be held in Azerbaijan on December 17.
The CEC told AssA-Irada that the figure is expected to rise as the Commission has sent invitations to the OSCE, European Union and Council of Europe to observe the upcoming municipal elections.

Opposition alliance boycotts municipal elections
The “Our Azerbaijan” bloc, an opposition alliance of 24 political parties, issued a statement on Tuesday with regard to boycotting the December 17 municipal elections.
“The bloc considers impossible its participation in the upcoming elections as there is not any opportunity of holding democratic election campaign in the country and municipalities are dependent on executive bodies,” the statement reads.


The Azerbaijan Liberal Democratic, Musavat, Umid and Popular Front parties, which include in the “Our Azerbaijan” bloc, an opposition alliance of 24 political parties, earlier passed a decision to boycott the election. The Azerbaijan Liberal Democrat Party is the first opposition party to boycott the municipal elections. The Musavat and Umid parties adopted a decision to boycott the elections last week. The Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA-reformers) joined boycotters on Monday.

Another opposition party boycotted the December 17 municipal election on Wednesday as the Political Council of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party adopted a decision to withdraw candidacies of its nominees.

The opposition parties underline that the municipal elections will be rigged by the ruling party.

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.

NGOs opposed to holding municipal election
A great number of NGOs actively deal with trainings and seminars in connection with the voter´s participation at nearing municipal elections. Some NGOs have declared that they face impedements and problems by the local government officials, while accessing to remote districts for holding seminars and trainings on municipal elections. It was also emphasized that civilians are reluctant to particate in the elections, as they believe that elections will not be free and fair. Several human rights organizations have noted that the elections will be falsified.  

Nowadays, a number of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued an appeal to the UN Security Council, OSCE and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) saying that holding the municipal election in the country is “illogical” amidst occupation of 20% of Azerbaijani territories by Armenian military forces.
“Azerbaijani refugees and displaced persons, ousted from their homes as a result of Armenia’s aggression, are settled all over the country and therefore we do not see what role they can play in the self-administration bodies and therefore believe it would be illogical to hold the election in Azerbaijan at this point”, the document said. “To hold a legal municipal election, Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity must be restored and refugees and IDPs returned to their native lands, whereby they can become involved in self-administration bodies.”