Parliamentary Elections, 5 November 2000 and 7 January 2001

Following an invitation from Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, ODIHR deployed an election observation mission on 4 October to observe the parliamentary elections on 5 November.

Headed by Nikolai Vulchanov of Bulgaria, theh mission included 17 experts and long-term observers, as well as more than 200 short-term observers from 30 OSCE participating States, including 21 parliamentarians and staff from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. In addition, polling was observed by a delegation of 18 parliamentarians from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

According to the mission's final report: " The 5 November 2000 elections to the Milli Majlis (Parliament) of the Republic of Azerbaijan took place in a political context marked by the country’s accession to the Council of Europe and questions about its future course. The elections marked some progress over previous occasions, in particular in the preparatory phase and enhanced political pluralism, although the overall process fell short of international standards for democratic elections. Regrettably, this progress was overshadowed on election day – polling was marred by numerous violations and the vote count was completely flawed.

"As a result, the election outcome was annulled in 11 single-mandate constituencies and partial repeat elections ordered for 7 January 2001. The repeat elections marked some improvement over the 5 November ballot, despite the resurgence of some problems already observed previously."