The snap elections to the parliament of Azerbaijan were held with numerous violations, and their results were falsified. Such statements were made by the opposition forces, who do not recognize the victory of the presidential party "New Azerbaijan".
The largest opposition party - "People's Front of Azerbaijan" - ignored the elections for the seventh time. The opposition National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) made a similar decision. Another opposition party - "Musavat" - took part in the elections for the first time in 15 years, ultimately not receiving a single seat. At the same time, during the voting, the party recorded massive violations: the same voters voted at different polling stations. Such "carousels" were captured on video by the Azerbaijani Service of Radio Liberty, according to its website.
"The voting itself took place in an environment of massive violations, ballot stuffing, the transportation of groups of voters to different polling stations, and pressure on observers," Musavat said in a statement.
Today, the NCDF issued a statement in which it indicated that the very appointment of early parliamentary elections for September 1 was contrary to the Constitution. The statement also noted that for many years, the authorities have not changed the electoral legislation in the direction of democratization.
"None of the proposals put forward by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe to improve electoral democracy over the years have been accepted. The authorities once again did not allow the PACE delegation to observe the elections and completely banned 76 members of the assembly from entering Azerbaijan," NCDF head Jamil Hasanli emphasized.
The Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), in turn, stated that it does not recognize the results of the early parliamentary elections, since they "do not reflect the will of the people, and their announced results are completely falsified."
"The new parliament was formed based on a list approved personally by Ilham Aliyev. Such a parliament cannot be legitimate and represent the people," the PFPA statement reads.
Following the results of the parliamentary elections held in Azerbaijan, the presidential New Azerbaijan Party received 68 out of 125 parliamentary mandates. Such data was announced by local media, citing the country's Central Election Commission. It was reported that almost all protocols have been processed.
Another 44 seats in parliament will go to self-nominated candidates who hold a pro-government position. Twelve mandates will be received by representatives of small parties that also support the government. And only one seat will go to a representative of the opposition Republican Alternative, Erkin Gadirli.
