The election dance in Azerbaijan: Carousel voting and ballot stuffing

The ruling party kept the majority of its seats

Originally published on Global Voices

Over six million eligible voters were expected to turn out at the polls to elect Azerbaijan's new lawmakers in a snap parliamentary election on September 1st. The turnout fell far shy of half the population (37.27 percent). The country does not have any laws or regulations on a minimum voter turnout requirement. Documentation of violations throughout the day by independent observers and journalists showed these elections were largely staged and filled with fraud, just as elections in the past have been.

According to the preliminary results announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC), the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) kept a majority of seats (68) out of 125 while the remaining seats were distributed among so-called independent candidates and smaller political parties. At least 88 of the seats will be occupied by previously elected members of the parliament. Among the newly elected are children of former and current government officials, employees of state institutions, former members of parliament, and a handful of independents with ties to the ruling government.  The last parliamentary elections were held in 2020 (also ahead of the originally scheduled date) and were contested.

Violence and voter violations

As most watchdogs have come to expect from Azerbaijan, journalists, independent observers as well as cameras set up across polling stations documented numerous cases of carousel/multiple voting and ballot stuffing.

This video illustrates how some voters voted multiple times:

This video documented how independent candidate Vafa Nagi was subjected to physical violence in her district and how journalists were prevented from filming at the polling station:

While this video captures multiple ballot stuffing:

The Central Election Commission vowed to investigate all reported violations and respond in at least twenty days.

For international observers known for their close ties to the government of Azerbaijan such as Russia, Turkey and Belarus, no irregularities were observed. Belarusian senator Dmitry Zhuk described the election day as calm and in the absence of any pressure. Turkish delegation from the Organization of Turkic States said, “elections were conducted openly and transparently.”

Among other international observers were also representatives from the the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, who in their briefing said the process was smooth and lawful. Observers representing the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) commended the government of Azerbaijan for organizing and conducting the elections lawfully, following “the rules and procedures developed by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as with the general principles and standards of democratic election.”

Deputy Secretary General of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Ali Asghar Mehammadi Sijani, congratulated the people of Azerbaijan and described the country as a “great democracy” in his briefing with the media.

Many of these organizations were also invited to observe Azerbaijan's snap presidential election, even though none have international credibility or accreditation. Speaking to BBC Azerbaijani service at the time, the head of the only independent election observation organization Anar Mammadli, said aside from the OSCE/ODIHR mission, many of the organizations invited to Azerbaijan, including GUAM and others, are not professional election observers, nor do they follow international standards for election observation. Mammadli's organization, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Education Center (EMDS), which has observed elections in Azerbaijan over the years, was absent during this election, given Mammadli's arrest in April 2024. He is facing bogus smuggling charges, as are some thirty other journalists, political activists and critics of the regime who were rounded up ahead of the elections.

None of the invited international observers and their organizations, with the exception of the OSCE/ODIHR mission, are signatories of the 2005 Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and the Code of Conduct for International Election Observers signed and adopted by the United Nations.

In total, 598 international observers were accredited by the CEC to observe this election.

The Azerbaijani government did not extend an invitation to the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to observe this election on the grounds that the international body did not approve the country's delegations’ credentials in January 2024. Once a year, on the opening day of the PACE session, all national parliaments of member states (47 in total) present the credentials of their delegations to the Assembly, which are then open to vote by the rest of the member states. In a statement, the head of the press service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aykhan Hajiyev, said none of the members who voted against Azerbaijan were welcomed in Azerbaijan and won't be welcomed until Azerbaijan's delegations’ credentials at PACE are restored.

The OSCE/ODIHR mission, consisting of 11 experts from 11 OSCE participant states, said the elections “took place in a restrictive and legal environment” which did not “enable genuine pluralism and resulted in a contest devoid of competition.” The organization's statement also said, “against the background of continued repression of dissenting voices, the campaign was barely visible, and efforts were not made to engage citizens or enable them to participate without fear of retribution.”

Several opposition groups boycotted the election amid the government's crackdown on journalists, academics, and politicians: the Popular Front, the National Council of Democratic Forces, an opposition bloc that includes the Popular Front party, and the 3rd Republic Platform all sat out of this election.

The 3rd Republic Platform said in a statement the election was “illegitimate” and that “the unprecedented political repression” environment rules out any chance of holding “free and fair elections.” Two of the platform's members are currently in pretrial custody — Akif Gurbanov and Ruslan Izzatli, facing spurious smuggling charges. As such, all basic freedoms “which are indispensable during an election campaign, have long been erased from the country's political reality,” reads the rest of the statement.

Opposition political parties have long struggled in Azerbaijan, faced with arrests, detentions, financial hurdles, or persecution, among other challenges. The ruling YAP has dominated the scene ever since it was founded in 1992.

The contested parliamentary election held in March 2020 changed little of the makeup of the national assembly.

Addressing the parliament at the time, President Ilham Aliyev tasked the newly elected members to adopt bills that would help the country reform. Since then, the parliament has approved controversial bills on media and political parties, tightened control over online content, and introduced measures restricting personal rights (new legislation introducing compulsory mediation for couples seeking divorce), to name a few.

Freedom House has ranked Azerbaijan “not free” consistently since 2013, in its annual Freedom in the World report.

With elections now behind the ruling government and with just three months before Azerbaijan hosts the COP29 summit, the world's largest annual international environmental conference, the country's future remains in the hands of the ruling elite with no prospect for meaningful change. 

Written by Arzu Geybullayeva