CEC comments on OSCE/ODIHR interim report
Baku, Sept 17 (AZERTAC). The Central Election Commission has expressed its feedback on an interim report issued by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on presidential elections to be held on 9 October.
CEC has expressed its attitude towards the clause about gender inequality in the report.
“As to absence of a female candidate among other presidential candidates, gender quality is enshrined in article 25 of Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic,” the commission said.
“Women are represented in the parliament, and both Azerbaijani government and judicial system. All conditions have been provided for women to use their passive voting rights.”
The fact that women do not use this opportunity has been noted in the report is at least inexplicable. By the way, there are many countries in Europe which never had female presidents,” CEC said in its statement.
CEC says OSCE ODIHR claims that the recommendations made by this institution were not taken into consideration following the 2010 parliamentary elections are groundless.
“As to claims that none of the ODIHR recommendations were taken into consideration while making amendments, we state that 12 of the 17 recommendations were adopted. The relevant information about this was forwarded to OSCE/ODIHR Director Janez Lenarcici on 12 August,” the statement reads.
CEC also responded to ODIHR remarks about formation of election commissions.
“As to formula of formation of election commissions, we state that election commissions were formed from equal number of representatives from opposition and government parties under OSCE/ODIHR recommendations in 2000.”
“The current opposition parties used this equality to boycott the work o f the CEC. Because of lack of the necessary quorum, the CEC members could make relevant decisions in time thus paralyzing the work of the Central Election Commission.
Despite the letter of the then ODIHR Director Gerard Studman to oppositions leaders calling them to show a constructive position, the boycott continued and a danger of violation of terms emerged.
The formula of formation of election commissions was later improved by Milli Majlis.
Referring to the statement of the abovementioned organization's report on the government control over all TV channels operating in Azerbaijan, the CEC said:
"As for the statement on government control over all television channels, we would like to remind the election observation mission that in Azerbaijan there is one state channel, one public channel and 33 private channels (five countrywide, 14 regional and 14 cable channels).
We would like to receive available evidence giving the basis to the conclusion or laws providing this opportunity".
The CEC also said that claims about problems in voter registration are unfounded.
"We would like to note that in the election process, registration card should be considered effective means to ensure the suffrage of voters.
To this end, the CEC has created ample opportunities for votes by releasing registration cars in the amount reflected in the report.
The fact that during the release of the report the number of voters receiving the cards was low should not be accepted as a final indicator.
This process continues until three days are left prior to the elections, and in the end, unused registration cards are officially cancelled in accordance with the legislation."
In the end, the CEC made remarks on the activity of the OSCE/ODIHR's election observation mission.
"Misunderstandings causing surprise in the Interim Report of OSCE/ODIHR create impression of necessity to build the activity (including observation on the Election Day) of the election observation mission in this direction more transparently.
We think that considering the frequently voiced public opinions that the observers should post their opinion about the Election Day on the OSCE website individually right after the elections would be useful in terms of increasing public confidence in the mission's activity."
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