EPDE Member EMDS (Azerbaijan) Preliminary Report on Presidential Elections in Azerbaijan

EMDS noted few violations during the opening of polling stations on the Election Day. However, the voting process was marred with serious violations (multiple voting, bringing voters to polling stations in groups, voters whose name are not on the list allowed to vote and ballot-box stuffing) similar to ones occurred in previous elections. Observers cooperating with EMDS report that in more than 100 polling stations voting results were not accurately reflected on the protocol and copy of protocols were not displayed in front of building.

Observation of the Election Day was carried out in 769 polling randomly selected polling stations across the country through Statistically Based Observation. Along with representatives of candidates, observers, who protested against occurred violations and requested to observe the process of vote counting, also faced serious pressure on the Election Day.

EMDS believes that political environment prior to the election and violations recorded during all stages of the election led to lack of equal competition opportunities and the 9 October 2013 Presidential Elections was marred with violation of national legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan and international standards, therefore cannot be considered free and democratic.

The full report is available here: PDF (EN)