Azerbaijan - Referendum 2009
Azerbaijan is a republic with a population of approximately nine million and a presidential form of government. Legislative authority is vested in the Milli Majlis (National Assembly). In practice the president dominated the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Ilham Aliyev, the son of former president Heydar Aliyev, was reelected president for a second term in October 2008 in a process that did not fully meet international standards for a democratic election.
In December 2008, the Azerbaijani parliament approved a measure calling for the abolition of presidential term limits, among other provisions. After limited public debate, the measure passed in a March 18, 2009 referendum on constitutional amendments.
The right of citizens to peacefully change their government was restricted in the March referendum. Torture and beating of persons in police and military custody resulted in at least four deaths and law enforcement officials acted with impunity. Prison conditions were generally harsh and life threatening. Arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of individuals considered by the government to be political opponents, and lengthy pretrial detention continued. The government continued to imprison persons for politically motivated reasons. Pervasive corruption, including in the judiciary and law enforcement, continued.
In December 2009 municipal elections were held throughout the country. Media monitors concluded that all television stations largely ignored the preelection period. Political parties were required to have candidates registered in at least one-half of all municipalities in order to qualify for free airtime during this period, a requirement that only the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party met and subsequently refused to use. Opposition parties and local NGOs reported interference in the candidate registration process. Official results showed a turnout of approximately 32 percent, which was low for the country and indicated the general apathy of voters to these elections. Although the CEC announced plans to rerun some races in response to postelection complaints, such elections had not been held by year's end.
Local NGOs maintained that the government continued to hold political prisoners, although estimates of the number varied. At year's end NGO activists maintained that the government held between 23 and 45 political prisoners. Although the government released some journalists, several remained imprisoned or were jailed during the year on criminal convictions for libel and other charges supposedly unrelated to their work.
In March 2009 authorities held a national referendum on 41 proposed changes to 29 articles of the constitution. The changes included, among other items, the removal of term limits on the presidency and a provision that postpones elections in times of war. Little time was given to the Milli Majlis or the public to discuss the changes sought by the administration. Opposition groups reported widespread harassment, including arrests and detention, while collecting signatures for registration and during the campaign period. Voters lacked the information necessary to make an informed choice on the large number of referendum items.
Balloting procedures on referendum day were flawed and widely considered worse than the 2008 presidential election. Observers also noted significant shortcomings in the counting and tabulation process. Voter turnout was estimated by observers at 43 percent, rather than the official tally of more than 71 percent. This lower figure exceeded the 25 percent threshold needed under the law for referendum to be valid.
On December 23, municipal elections were held throughout the country. Media monitors concluded that all television stations largely ignored the pre-election period. Political parties were required to have candidates registered in at least one-half of all municipalities in order to qualify for free airtime during this period, a requirement that only the ruling YAP met and subsequently refused to use. Opposition parties and local election monitoring NGOs reported interference in the candidate registration process.
Official results showed a turnout of 31.86 percent, which was low for the country, and indicated the general apathy of voters to these elections. A delegation of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, which monitored the election, noted shortcomings in areas including "counting of the voters in the polling stations, the role and the origin of local election observers, the readability of ballot papers, and the regularity of the vote count." After reviewing hundreds of post-election complaints, the Central Election Commission canceled the results in 33 of the 4,813 polling stations in the country and announced plans to repeat these elections in 2010.
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