Eight “Viasna” Members Monitor Presidential Election in Azerbaijan

Working at a separate international mission in Azerbaijan under the OSCE supervision Belarusian observers inspected the work of the polling station commissions and watched the calculation of votes at the circuit electoral commissions in different regions of Azerbaijan, from Baku to the border with Iran. “Belarusian experience”, the “Viasna” members gained from the monitoring of the Presidential and local elections in Belarus, was very useful in Azerbaijan.

Dozens of gross violations of the electoral legislation were registered. As a result of the joint discussion the electoral process in Azerbaijan was called “farce”. The election was neither free nor transparent. Head of the circuit electoral commissions often beat the commission members who belonged to oppositional parties and passed them to the police. Bags of ballot papers for I. Aliyev were found near polling stations. This experience will also be useful in Belarus, taking into consideration the similar scale of falsifications here.