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 – 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 the Republic of 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).
 

“Although the general climate was calm, open and   friendly the delegation of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the   CE observed a number of serious irregularities the nature of which could   prejudice the electoral process”, said the Head of the   delegation Vim Van Geldera, who monitored elections about in 80 polling stations. (20 DEC 2004)

In her article, One more falsified election in Republic of Azerbaijan: Municipal elections , the Azerbaijani human rights activist Shahla Ismayilova describes how the municipality elections were falsified in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Today, the reality shows that the word “elections” causes sad smile in the Republic of 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. (20-DEC-2004)

The municipal elections were held in the Republic of Azerbaijan on 17 December, 2004.  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)

Participants of section ” The Civil control over authority´s actions ” came to such conclusion, working within the framework of the All-Russia Civic Congress ” the Russian Federation for democracy, against dictatorship “. (17-DEC-04)
 

Today municiplaity elections are held in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Baku-based Election Monitoring Centre (EMC) works in the direction of the development of the election system, improvement of the election legislation, organization of monitoring in the election process, creation of the democratic election environment. Today, the EMC conducts monitoring process on municipality elections via corps of domestic observers consists of NGO members and volunteers in 38 district election commisiions (DEC) of Republic of Azerbaijan Republic. (17-DEC-2004)

Several days ago the deputies of deputy soviets of districts of Minsk, members of Belarusian People’s Front Ales Mikhalevich and Yury Ziankovich received the answer to their complaint against the deprivation of the right to be elected. (16-DEC-2004)

The European Union decided to prohibit the entrance to its territory to the police colonel Padabed for participation in the beating of the leader of the United Civil Party Anatol Liabedzka during the protest action of 20 October and the head of the Central Election Committee of Republic of Belarus Lidziya Yarmoshyna — for falsification of the results of the parliamentary election and the referendum of 17 October. (16-DEC-2004)

“The situation concerning the nearing municipality elections due on 17 December in the Republic of Azerbaijan is miserable”, says Leyla Yunus, director of the non-governmentInstitute of Peace and Democracy (IPD). Mass arrest actions follow every elections in the Republic of Azerbaijan and according to IPC the municipal election in 2004 are not an exception.( (15-DEC-2004).
 

On December 12 , the 10th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, a Civic Congress of political parties and movements opposed to President Putin´s policies have been  held in Moscow. Politicians and human rights defenders unite in the fight for democracy. (15-DEC-2004)
 

– EU Guidelines on human rights defenders are an important tool for a stronger protection of and support to activists, says the Human Rights House Foundation (HRH). HRH participated at an EU conference last week about implementation of the Guidelines. (15-DEC-04)
 

– EU Guidelines on human rights defenders are an important tool for a stronger protection of and support to activists, says the Human Rights House Foundation (HRH). HRH participated at an EU conference last week about implementation of the Guidelines adopted in June. (15-DEC-04)