Ilham Aliev Has Appointed Deputies From Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - Aliev's administration decided to give only 9 mandates out of 125 to the opposition. But can we consider parliamentary elections legitimate if none of the leaders of six most influential opposition parties were allowed to Mejlis? Among oppositionists elected to the Mejlis there are virtually no serious and popular politicians. Abolition of proportional elections allowed the ruling regime to prevent the coming of all potential candidates to the presidential post. Among those who were dropped out of play are former parliament speaker Rasul Guliev, the leader of Musavatists Isa Hambar, the former First Secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party Ayaz Mutalibov, the leader of Popular Front party Ali Kerimly, the head of National Independence party Eribar Mamedov and the ideologist of "New Politics" block Eldar Namazow. This brightly proves that the list of deputies who were to enter the parliament of Azerbaijan were made in the president's administration and were approved by Ilham Aliev personally.
We can judge about the legitimacy of Azeri parliament by still another curious fact. According to the electoral commissions, elections in 122nd and 124th electoral districts are declared valid. Is there anything unusual? The thing is that the mentioned electoral districts are supposedly functioning in Nagorno Karabakh. It turns out that the former autonomy which has long ago gained independence is represented in the parliament of the neighbor country. On what grounds do the deputies elected in 122nd and 124th districts assert that they are authorized to represent the people of Nagorno Karabakh in Mejlis? Who has elected them? According to the government of Azerbaijan, electors from 122nd and 124th districts voted in polling stations established in Baku Sumgait, Gyanja, Mingyachevire, Barde and Sheki (places where Azeris from Karabakh compactly reside). As for the "ethnic majority" of Nagorno Karabakh, that is to say Armenians, they did not take part in the elections since the "separatist regime" put obstacles in the process. Nevertheless elections from Karabakh are declared valid. According to official sources of Azerbaijan, the voter's list of 122nd "Karabakh" district included 3034 voters. As they say, most of them took part in voting, so the elections should be considered legitimate. Meanwhile, it is known that today there are about 100.000 electors in Karabakh. So how can 3000 electors decide the fate of 100.000 electors? Here we can see obvious contradiction not only with simple logic, but also with the laws of Azerbaijan, because according to their electoral law, the electoral district has to have no less than 36.000 voters. So, how can they talk about legitimacy of deputies if they are elected through such crying violence of law?

Formerly, elections in the 122nd district were not held and the "Karabakh" place in Mejlis remained vacant. This time Aliev's administration decided to take a propagandist step and appoint his person also in the "Karabakh" district not to lose a vote in Mejlis. At first it seemed that the farce would not reach its final. Sensible politicians called the powers to give up the shady deal, but anyway Aliev decided to play to the end. As a result, the head of Women's Council of the World Congress of Azeris Khava Mamedova was elected to Mejlis from the 122nd district and former Khojali village elder Elman Mamedov was elected from the 124th district. By the way the latter once became famous for recognizing the presence of humanitarian corridor left by Armenian military forces, so that Azeris could leave the village. "We knew that the corridor is meant for the withdrawal of villagers", Mamedov said in his interview in 1994. Now, for some reason he prefers to forget his own words.

President Aliev is free to determine the scale of falsifications in his country. These are the home affairs of Azerbaijan and Armenia is not going to meddle in. The appointment of deputies from Karabakh should in this case be viewed not from a political but legal point. Those deputies will speak on behalf of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, not having any rights for that. Will international organizations really shut their eyes to that?