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On January 29, municipal elections were held in Azerbaijan, with a turnout of 31.45%. According to the Central Election Commission, it was a success, while the opposition and independent observers said it was, as usual, fraud and irregularities
On January 29, Azerbaijan held a municipal election, which was postponed by a month, but the Central Election Commission failed to explain why. 16,092 candidates ran for 8,071 municipal council member seats at 685 municipalities.
The elected council members voted to choose their municipality leader. There were no international observers, while local independent observers reported several violations – a common trend for elections in Azerbaijan.
Voter participation was registered at 31.45 percent, an indicator that independent election observers and political opposition refute.
According to Mazahir Panahov, head of the Commission, the election was successful despite reports of voter fraud. Unlike the last municipal election in December 2019, when scores of young independent candidates ran in local elections in a different atmosphere , these elections showed no promise and little hope.
An institution without powers
These were the 6th municipal elections since 1999, and since the Law on Municipal Elections and the Law on the Status of Municipalities were adopted in the National Parliament. After joining the Council of Europe in 2001 and ratifying its charter on local government the following year, the government was responsible for guaranteeing a certain level of autonomy to municipalities, but never did.
The 2021 monitoring report on local self-governance in Azerbaijan by the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities reads that municipalities in Azerbaijan “were not considered state institutions which exercise public services as part of overall public administration but rather an expression of civil society”.
The report highlighted the “ill-defined” relationship between the municipalities and the local government authorities, adding that the municipalities did not have “exclusive” powers and lacked financial revenues or independence.
In October 2024, the parliament of Azerbaijan approved the merger of 1,400 municipalities, reducing their total number to 685 as part of amendments to the “List of Municipalities of Azerbaijan” and the law “On the Territories and Lands of Municipalities”.
“Unfortunately, in 25 years of their existence, municipalities in our country have not achieved the goals they set for themselves. Because they have neither power nor financial resources. Even the status of municipalities is unclear”, explained Samir Aliyev, a member of the Independent Experts Group at the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, in an interview with JamNews, adding that “instead of granting municipalities powers, the central government saw the solution in merging them”.
In December 2024, politician Jamil Hasanli told Abzas Media that merging municipalities was not a solution, but giving them more power was. “As long as they have no powers, regardless of their size, they cannot do any work”, he argued.
Reducing the number of municipalities, while effective, should be more about responsibilities assigned to the local self-governance. Otherwise, it is “cosmetic reform”, said election expert Mammad Mammadzade in an interview with Abzas Media. At the moment, “municipalities as institutions are not considered part of state governance”, added the expert.
Ali Gasimli was elected during the first municipal election in 1999. In an interview with Azadliq Radio, Gasimli recalled how different the atmosphere and the environment were at the time.
There was more interest among candidates, more flexibility in the budget, more opportunities for the municipalities. However, many of their revenue sources were cut over the years, and the lack of power and responsibilities reduced interest. The election manipulation eventually led to the loss of hope in the municipalities.
Instagram video footage showed incidents of ballot stuffing, carousel voting and aggressive behaviour towards independent observers, independent candidates and journalists at the polling stations.
But that was not all. An independent candidate, Jamila Alishova, told reporters how she was verbally harassed by one of the election commission members.
A man, who introduced himself as Rauf, approached Alishova and told her that when she was a pupil, he was her physical education teacher and that he would stare at her legs when she went up the stairs while wearing a school uniform dress. When a colleague attempted to speak with the man, he quickly left the building while hiding his name tag. He also denied saying anything to Alishova or that his name was Rauf.
According to Bashir Suleymanli, who heads the Citizens Rights Institute, the reports of election violations signal no positive change in election transparency. In an interview with Azadliq Radio, Suleymanli said that “the [reported] violations and fraud were more exaggerated than before. We saw carousel voting, ballot stuffing, and misuse of administrative resources”.
Opposition parties described the election as neither free nor fair. In a statement, the Musavat party said that the municipal election failed to meet international standards. The party also accused the Central Election Commission of inflating voter turnout. According to the party, some thirty members ran in the local election, but none were elected. The Popular Front, on the other hand, boycotted the election from the start.
At least one person was arrested and sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention on drug charges. Jalal Javadov, an activist, threw a picture of arrested Meydan TV journalists into the ballot box on the day of the election. His last post on Facebook read, “Regardless of arrest waves, there are and always will be independent votes”. A photo of Meydan TV journalists accompanied the post.
Azerbaijan’s independent media outlets, journalists, and activists have been targeted by a new wave of crackdowns since November 2023.
Some twenty journalists are currently in pretrial detention on bogus charges of smuggling, tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and document forgery to name a few. Among them are journalists from Azbas Media, Toplum TV, and Meydan TV. By some accounts of local human rights observers, there are over 300 political prisoners.
On February 3, the Central Election Commission announced that results at six polling stations were cancelled after reviewing complaints and reports submitted to the commission. Following the elections, Commission head Mazahir Panahov floated the idea of banning filming of people at the polling stations altogether.