OSCE calls on Azerbaijani authorities to raise public trust to elections

OSCE has guarantees of Azerbaijani authorities that elections will be held on the level of international standards, says the report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on the election situation in Azerbaijan, posted on the official website of the organization, according to Novosti-Azerbaijan.

To attain this, OSCE calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to take steps to raise public trust to the voting process.

Considering it, OSCE will send 30 long-term observers to Azerbaijan in late August and 450 short-term observers in October.

The report also says that despite amendments and alterations were introduced to the Azerbaijani Electoral Code, it still has a number of shortcomings.

Particularly, the term of official election campaign has reduced from 60 to 28 days. All these changes may restrict opportunities of the candidates and political parties to hold meetings with voters.

It was especially noted that the state television does not fulfill its legal duties on ensuring equal rights for conduction of the pre-election campaign. In the result of it, only public television may allocate airtime for all candidates.

The document also notes that the situation in the sphere of mass media deteriorated following parliamentary elections of 2005. Despite existence of seven TV channels in Azerbaijan, the chance of the citizens to hear opinions of various political structures over TV is restricted. At the same time, mass media is imposed to pressure and three journalists are still in prison.

The report also touches upon the problem of freedom of assembly of the citizens. As is noted, conduction of various mass actions in the city center is still prohibited and unsanctioned actions are dispersed by law enforcement bodies.