Parliamentary Elections, 7 November 2010

Following an invitation from the Azerbaijan's Permanent Mission to the OSCE, and based on the findings and conclusions of ODIHR's needs assessment mission, ODIHR deployed an election observation mission on 19 September to observe the parliamentary elections on 7 November.

Headed by Audrey Glover of the United Kingdom, the mission consisted of a core team of 16 international experts based in Baku and 22 long-term observers will deployed throughout the country.

For election-day observation, the mission joined efforts with delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament. In total, 405 short-term observers from 41 OSCE participating States were deployed.

According to the mission's final report: "Certain conditions necessary for a meaningful and competitive election were lacking in these elections. The fundamental freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression were limited and a vibrant political discourse facilitated by free and independent media was almost impossible. A deficient candidate registration process, a restrictive political environment, unbalanced and biased media coverage, disparity in access to resources to mount an effective campaign, misuse of administrative resources as well as interference by local authorities in favor of candidates from the ruling party created an uneven playing field for candidates. Not all electoral contestants were able to compete on a basis of equal treatment by the authorities as called for in paragraph 7.6 of the OSCE Copenhagen Document. Overall, these elections failed to meet a number of key OSCE commitments for democratic elections and important elements of Azerbaijani domestic legislation."