U.S. concerned about restrictive political environment in Azerbaijan

November 3, 2015 - 12:44 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. State Department issued a statement on Azerbaijani parliamentary elections of November 1.

“We regret that the Government of Azerbaijan did not allow the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to field its necessary number of observers, and therefore ODIHR was not able to monitor the elections. Without ODIHR participation, it is impossible for us to say that Azerbaijan has made progress on ODIHR’s previous election observation recommendations, which identified and sought to address limitations to fundamental freedoms,” the statement read.

The State Department said it was still concerned about the restrictive political environment in Azerbaijan and urged the Government of Azerbaijan to respect the freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and independent voices including the media as part of its international commitments, and to work with the OSCE, including ODIHR, to this end.

Loyalists of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev swept the board in a parliamentary election on Sunday, November 1 that mainstream opposition and international monitors had shunned.

Candidates from the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) Party won the majority of 125 seats in the single-chamber parliament, the Central Election Commission (CEC) head said.

The opposition has already cried foul over the election.

"The election in Azerbaijan is conducted in an undemocratic environment," the opposition Musavat Party's leader, Arif Gajily, told Reuters. "Our observers monitored a lot of violations, including ballot stuffing, during the vote."

Human Rights Watch said this week that Azeri authorities had convicted or imprisoned at least 35 journalists and rights and political activists in 2014 and that "the crackdown continued at a dizzying pace."

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said it would not monitor the election because restrictions imposed on it by the authorities made credible monitoring impossible.