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“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)

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)

“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).
 

Municipal elections will be held in the Republic of 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 the Republic of Azerbaijan. During the elections, 38,866 candidates will run for municipal seats. (10-DEC-2004)
 

The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and
Azerbaijan Federation of Human Rights Organizations (AFHRO) express their concerns regarding violence against women in the Republic of Azerbaijan at the 33rd session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(CESCR). (10-DEC-2004)
 

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has today published its first report on Republic of Azerbaijan, together with the Government’s responses. The report concerns the CPT’s periodic visit to Republic of Azerbaijan in November/December 2002.In the report, the CPT concludes that people detained by the police in the Republic of Azerbaijan run a significant risk of being ill-treated. The Committee recommends that a high priority be given to professional training for police officers and that the legal safeguards against ill-treatment (such as notification of custody, access to a lawyer and access to a doctor) be applied as from the very outset of deprivation of liberty. (09- Dec-2004) 

TURAN AGENCY: On the 18th of November the Court of appeal considering the case of 7 opposition leaders, accused for participation in 15-16 October events, concluded the work. However, the entire prognosis failed again when the court left the sentence of 7 opposition leaders in force.(21-NOV-04)