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Azerbaijani opposition party Musavat, civil movements ReAl and NIDA claim the results of the November 1 parliamentary elections should be cancelled and the poll must be rerun, the groups said in a joint statement as reported by Turan agency.

The authors of the document call on the authorities of Azerbaijan to release the political prisoners, create normal conditions for holding fair and free elections, change the principle of forming the electoral commissions, which are totally controlled by the authorities, as well as to provide equal opportunities for the pre-election campaign, giving free broadcast time for holding public discussions. None of the three groups recognises the results of the polls, which had no alternatives and took place amid repressions.

Arif Hajili, the chairman of Musavat, told a press conference that his party intends to appeal the law violations in local and international courts. “We will go on with the struggle with the resources in our possession,” he stressed, as cited by Turan.

Three members of the PACE monitoring mission, Frank Schwabe and Ute Finckh-Kraemer from Germany and Michael McNamara from Ireland, told Turan they cannot call the elections fair and democratic. “In spite of the material and technical base, these elections were not accompanied by political freedom, freedom of speech and press, assembly and association, and therefore cannot be considered democratic,” they said.

The statement notes the poor state of human rights in the country, the government pressure on civil society and human rights NGOs, as well as the illegal arrests of the well-known human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus, Intigam Aliyev, Rasul Jafarov and others. “The suppression of freedom of speech and of the press for a long time is a concern of the local and international community, but now the trend of harassment of journalists and arrests on trumped up charges has intensified,” the deputies said. They further expressed regret that the government did not create the conditions for the presence of the election monitoring group of the OSCE/ODIHR.

“…with regard to the conclusions of the PACE observation mission, it is important to keep in mind that it visited an extremely small number of polling stations of the country. It is not enough to draw conclusions about the quality of the elections. Thus, the mission of the PACE watched less than 0.5% of the vote counting only in one of the 125 electoral commissions. It is not enough to draw conclusions on the situation in the country. But even in these polling stations were visible clear violations,” the PACE members stated, as cited by Turan.

Meanwhile, the agency also reports that the head of PACE delegation, Jordi Xuclà (Spain), told a November 2 press conference that the elections were conducted in a calm atmosphere, the voting process mainly met the international standards and the observers of his mission did not register any incidents. However, he added that the PACE mission calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to take up “immediate measures for improving the human rights situation and continue the democratic development of the country.” He further urged them to implement the resolution 2062 adopted by the PACE on 23 June 2015, the recommendations of the Venice Commission of the CoE and the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights. Noting the importance of the consideration of the conclusions about the previous elections made by the European Parliament, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and OSCE/ODIHR, the mission called on PACE to a cooperation with Azerbaijan.

When asked by Turan whether the lack of debates during the pre-election campaign met the CoE standards and practice of the European states, Xuclà said that it had shocked them. “TV debates are a crucial part of the democratic process. We hope in the future Azerbaijan will adopt the practice as well,” head of PACE mission said.

Sergey Markedonov, a political analyst, writes for Politcom.ru that no more or less significant traces of a political struggle were practically observed in Azerbaijan. The authorities of the country have already made a good tradition to carry out “cleansings” in its circles on the eve if the elections. Ahead of the 2013 presidential elections, Gular Ahmadova, an MP, was dismissed from the ruling party and sent to the observation of the police. Now, “a higher bird” was shot, the Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov, the analyst points.
EurasiaNet.org highlights that the Western observers who “gave a hearty thumbs-up” to the polls, are often bashed for alleged openness to Azerbaijani lobbying. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, former US Congressman Joe Bata and Jason Katz, director of the California-based lobbying firm Tool Shed Group, and others are among them.

According to the National Post, a group of several Israeli politicians flew into the oil rich nation to observe the proceedings, although this is unlikely to improve the credibility of the poll. Azerbaijan is wooed by Western governments seeking an alternative to Russia as a source of energy imports. Israel is one such customer and in return sells large quantities of sophisticated weaponry to Azerbaijan, partly in exchange for oil.

The US Department of State also commented on the polls in Azerbaijan. “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,” Elizabeth Trudeau, Director of the Office of Press Relations, said. “We continue to have concerns about the restrictive political environment in Azerbaijan and urge 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.”

Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, issued a statement. “No agreement was reached between the Azerbaijani authorities and OSCE/ODIHR on the number of electoral observers, which compelled OSCE/ODIHR to cancel its election observation mission,” she said. “The Azerbaijani authorities need to implement previous OSCE/ODIHR recommendations. The EU supports elections based on international standards, conducted in a transparent and inclusive manner.” Mogherini pointed out that one major opposition party did not participate in the elections, which deemed that a level playing field was not guaranteed for all the candidates.

“In Azerbaijan democracy, freedom, pluralism continue to face high hurdles. Parliamentary elections fell short of credible standards,” the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, wrote on Twitter.

According to the Global Voices, in a result that surprised nobody, the ruling party belonging to the ruling clan cruised to a comfortable majority in Azerbaijan's parliamentary election. Already in the morning, independent observers were reporting serious violations: Carousel voting was also more efficient and better organised than in previous years. Women, students, and other mixed groups were responsible for going from one polling station to another and casting multiple votes.

Ales Bialiatski, heading Viasna human rights centre, considers the polls in Azerbaijan to be the same farce as they were in Belarus. “The mass fraud, taking place both in Azerbaijan and Belarus, is the common feature of the ‘elections’ held in both authoritarian countries. No doubt, the ‘elections’ in Azerbaijan were falsified as well. Practically almost all of the pro-presidential New Azerbaijan party candidates won. The authorities also included one or two representatives from each insignificant small political group in the Parliament in order to create a façade of democracy. The parliament is entirely under the control of the executive authorities,” the rights defender explained, as sited by the Ukrainian news portal Charter 97.

Deutsche Welle reports that PACE called on the authorities to "urgently improve the situation on human rights and to continue the democratic development of the country after the elections," noting "serious concerns in the sphere of human rights still remain in Azerbaijan" including the imprisonment of activists.

Human Rights Watch submitted a memorandum to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which contains information on human rights defenders, journalists, independent political leaders, and other perceived government critics arrested as part of the government’s multi-year crackdown on dissent. “As part of this work, we have documented serious violations of Azerbaijan’s international obligations, including the prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment, and have produced reports and other documents describing our research findings,” the group said.

Earlier, Freedom House had expressed concern over Azerbaijan’s parliamentary elections. The organisation noted that no election debates have been held on television or at universities, no mass demonstrations or roundtable discussions have been organized, and the public shows little to no interest in the campaign. Most opposition parties have decided not to participate in these elections and reported multiple violations.

Human Rights House Network said legitimacy of Azerbaijan election is challenged. “The authorities in Azerbaijan have failed to silence and control all of PACE’s international observation mission, as they have done so effectively with the opposition within the country,” HRHN highlighted.

Head of Advocacy of the Human Rights House Foundation, Florian Irminger, commented on the election: “We were hoping to hear the results 24 hours before polls closed, as has happened in the past, but were forced to sit through the motions of an election day before the Azerbaijan Election Commission confirmed the results. They are not a surprise, nor would it be anything new to delve into the well-documented repression, human rights violations, restrictive registration of candidates, and mass fraud that have led to these results.”
He highlighted that three members of the PACE observation mission – Ute Finckh-Kraemer (Germany), Michael McNamara (Ireland), and Frank Schwabe (Germany) – issued a dissenting statement detailing why they do not regard the elections as "a step towards free, fair, and democratic elections.” According to Irminger, “this opens up the possibility of PACE MPs challenging the acceptance of the credentials of the Azerbaijan delegation to PACE in 2016, on grounds that they are not freely and fairly elected.”

Citing Modern.az, Oxu.az writes that 12 of the re-elected MPs have spent 20 years in the Parliament as they have been there since 1995. One of the MPs, Madar Musayev, was elected for the sixth time. He got his first deputy mandate in 1991, when Azerbaijan was still in the USSR.

On 1 November, Azerbaijan held elections, where 767 candidates were struggling for the 125 seats in the Parliament. According to preliminary data issued by the CEC, the ruling Yeni Azerbiajan party won, receiving 70 seats in the legislative body of the country. The voter turnout was 55.7 percent: 2.89 million voters out of 5.2 million took part in the elections. The elections were observed by 503 international monitors from 40 organisations, including PACE, Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries. There were reports about numerous irregularities in the polling stations. In particular, there were cases of ballot stuffing, voting carousels, and so on.

International agencies took up rather stern stance over the upcoming parliamentary elections. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced that, due to restrictions imposed by the Azerbaijani authorities, ODIHR had no choice but to cancel its mission to observe the country’s parliamentary elections. The European Parliament followed the suit.