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Republic of Azerbaijan is now on the center of attention of international community for the Parliamentary Elections to be held on 6 November. The country authority has received the abundance of recommendations and statements from the international community, encouraging the government to exercise the conditions for the conduct of free and democratic elections in the country. However, despite of certain steps for improvement of the situation, the Azerbaijani reality on the democratic elections leaves much to be desired (05-NOV-2005). 

November 6 is the day of Parliamentary elections in Republic of Azerbaijan. On the day prior to elections, 1544 candidates fight for 125 deputy mandates. For November 5 the number of candidates for parliament which left pre-election marathon reached 519, including 472 men and 47 women. According to independent press-center in the CEC, 476 candidates withdrew their candidatures. Registration of 39 candidates was eliminated by the Court of Appeal, 2 candidates by CEC; 2 candidates died (05-NOV-2005)

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights House Foundation (Norway) and Human Rights Centre Viasna (Belarus) are deeply concerned by several recent arrests and human rights violations during the run-up to the Azerbaijani elections scheduled for November 6th.  There are strong indications that the violations are politically motivated. (04-NOV-05)

6 November 2005 is the day of Parliamentary elections in Republic of Azerbaijan. The upcoming elections cause a lot of interest not only within the country, but also outside of its borders. The whole international community is watching the uneasy processes prior to the elections and gives its opinion about the situation. During October 2005 the Azerbaijani government has probably received the maximum number of recommendations, opinions, and reports than ever. Below you can see the extracts from the opinions/reports of highly authoritative institutions and / or persons about the pre-election situation and upcoming elections (31-OCT-2005).

On 23 October supporters of the opposition protested simultaneously in three Baku venues. This was the 4th such protest in a month. The peculiar feature of this action was the police’s relative lack of aggressiveness and violence toward the protesters. Still, over 150 protesters were detained, including the candidates to Parliament, though the majority of them were released the same day (25-OCT-2005).
 

Last week the president Ilham Aliyev surprised the whole world by the radical changes in the cabinet. The sudden news about the removal of the Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev on the 19-th of October, followed by the dismissal of the Minister of Healthcare Ali Insanov caused lots of talks about the internal disputes in the Azerbaijani authority. This news initiated plenty of rumors about the run-away of the rest of the cabinet (25-OCT-2005).
 

By verdict of a Ukranian court, Rasul Guliyev was released 20 October. He was detained in Simferopol 17 October on his way to Republic of Azerbaijan, which he left in 1996 for asylum. He was detained through Interpol on the basis of Azerbaijani authorities’ request. On 21 October Guliyev left for London, but he told that he would come to Republic of Azerbaijan before Parliamentary elections (21-OCT-2005).
 

Today, the visit of the leader of Republic of Azerbaijan Democratic Party Rasul Guliyev (right) has been expected to Baku after 9 years of emigration. Guliyev held the highest positions in the Republic of Azerbaijan authority during the beginning of presidency of former president Heydar Aliyev. His latest position was the speaker of the National Parliament since 1997 the ADP has been the opposition party and now ADP is a member of the Azadlig Bloc oppositional coalition and Guliyev is a registered candidate for Parliament. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the general prosecutor´s Office declared several times that Guliyev would be arrested immediately if he planned to arrive Republic of Azerbaijan (17-OCT-2005).
 

On behalf of the emerging Human Rights House in Baku, the nine Azeri NGOs have sent a protest letter where they appeal to the international community to raise their voices in defense of human rights respect and freedom of assembly, press and speech in the Republic of Azerbaijan. (11-OCT-05)