EPDE member EMDS (AZ) regrets misleading opinions on independent observers
Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS) regrets political statements made by state officials on opinions of domestic and international organizations about the Presidential Election and calls the government to demonstrate political will to conduct objective and comprehensive investigation of complaints and reports of violations occurred on the Election Day received by the Central Election Commission (CEC) and Constituency Election Commissions.
The EMDS regretfully notes that the Preliminary Statement released by the joint Observation Mission the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE and the Parliament Assembly of the OSCE was reacted with protest by Azerbaijan Officials and was not employed to evaluate the violations on the Election Day.
The EMDS also notes that news stating that “The EMDS recognizes the results of Election” published on various media outlets and web-portals, including APA and Trend agencies, Space, Xazar TVs, New Musavat, “525” newspapers do not reflect the reality. This kind of false information are directed to defame impartiality and professionalism of EMDS and citizens who cooperate with the organization. The EMDS stresses that monitoring conducted by the organizations under the auspices of the authority, including statement on election observation of the Election Day released by West-Resource Support to Civil Society Development Public Union have no association with EMDS and its position.
EMDS notes with concerns that according to reports received on the Election Day, violation of law occurred in 91 percent of polling stations observed. These violations include intervening in the secrecy of voting, voting by one person on behalf of others, ballot stuffing, multiple voting, numerous cases of voting by persons whose name were not on voters list, inaccurate reflection of results of election on the protocol, pressure against observers and voters, and intervention in the election process by unauthorized person.
It should be noted that as a professional election monitoring organization, EMDS election observation does not reflect assessment of voting results, but include evaluation of legal quality of the process.
EMDS conducted Statistically Based Observation (SBO) of the Election Day of the 9 October 2013 Presidential Elections in cooperation with 794 non-partisan observers reporting on layout of polling stations, voting and vote tabulation. SBO methodology is scientific approach based on nationally representative sample allowing for accurate, operative and impartial assessment of voting and vote tabulation against domestic legislation and international standards. The sample includes 769 polling stations from all 125 election constituencies covering 15% of all polling stations in the country.
The statement as PDF (EN)