Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.30 / Trend /
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has issued the second interim report on pre-election preparation for upcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan for Oct.16-26.
The parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are scheduled for November 7, 2010. Previous parliamentary elections were held in November 2005. Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are held by the majority system in 125 constituencies.
The OSCE report says that the Central Election Commission (CEC) continued its active preparations for these elections. The document says it meets frequently; sessions are open to observers and media, and decisions are published promptly. "The CEC is continuing its education of voters, lower-level commissions and police. Constituency Election Commissions (ConECs) have provided training on election-day procedures to Precinct Election Commissions (PECs)," the report says.
According to the organization, the CEC is making serious efforts to improve the voter lists.
"Voter lists are available for public scrutiny at polling stations. Voters are able to update their registration at the PECs, but few appear to have done so thus far, and only a small number have requested deregistration voting cards enabling them to vote in a different polling station in the same constituency," the report says.
The report also indicates problems of media coverage of the elections and the campaign in the news and current affairs programs. It says that Public TV is the only national channel to organize daily roundtable discussions that provide each candidate with four minutes of free airtime.
As of 25 October, the CEC has reviewed a total of 224 complaints. The CEC upheld 42 complaints against denial of registration by ConECs. The report says that Baku Court of Appeals has thus far reviewed over 50 cases, dismissing them all.
The CEC has registered 581 international observers for the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. The total number of observers is more than 20,000 people.
So far, 692 candidates have been registered to participate in the elections.