Documents

2015

Parliamentary Elections

Final Report

EPDE
Azerbaijan

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EPDE carried out long-term observation of the November 1, 2015, Parliamentary Elections in Azerbaijan with support of more than 50 local long-term observers (LTOs) and local civil society activists in more than 80 election constituencies around the country. EPDE notes with regret that the November 1, 2015, Parliamentary Elections were carried out amidst numerous incidents of political imprisonment and gross violations of freedoms to assembly, association, and expression.

 

Parliamentary Elections

Analysis of the Activity of International Monitoring Missions

EPDE
Azerbaijan

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EPDE expresses its concern over international election observation missions delegitimizing the institution of election observation as well as damaging the reputation of those parliaments and international institutions that they represent. According to an EPDE survey of the work of international election observation missions during the Parliamentary elections on November 1, 2015, in Azerbaijan, none of the 40 officially registered international missions conducted a long-term election observation in the country. 

 

Constitutional Referendum

Armenian Election Monitoring Groups protest against pushing forward constitutional reform by the presidential administration

TI & HCAV
Armenia

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On September 4, 2013, President Serzh Sargsyan made a unilateral decision to introduce amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. The referendum was pushed forward by the authorities rather quickly and aggressively. Many international standards for referendums, as set forth in Venice Commission’s Code of Good Practice on Referendums (2007) are not observed. 

 

Human Dimension Meeting of ODIHR

Harassment of Independent Citizens’ Election Observers – Challenges for international Institutions and Civil Society

EPDE
Poland

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Photo: www.osce.org

EPDE is alarmed about the increasing harassment of citizens' election observers in the ODIHR region. EPDE members in Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation and Belarus are affected by intimidation of staff members, criminal persecution, non-registration of the organisations or of labelling of the organisation as "foreign agents". Authoritarian regimes "copy and paste" laws to restrict the watchdog function of independent election observers. EPDE has organised a discussion on the Human Dimension Meeting of ODIHR in Warsaw 25 September 2015.