Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 1 / Trend I. Izzet /
When forwarding complaints to the courts on electoral law, electoral commissions themselves have to prove the correctness of their decision, the chairman of the Baku Court of Appeal Iman Naghiyev said during a specialized course on electoral law for the chairmen of district election commissions (DECs) at the Central Election Commission on Thursday.
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Speaking on "Protecting the right to vote in the court of appeal (appeal, the order of execution, timing, evidence and other matters)", Naghiyev noted that, according to the amendments made to the legislation, the correctness of decisions on complaints to the courts will be proved by bodies that have adopted those decisions, that is, by the electoral commissions.
"Thus, until April 2012, complaints on violations of the electoral law have been investigated under the Civil Procedure Code. From now on, this issue is governed by the Administrative Procedure Code, and complaints are dealt with by the administrative courts. According to the legislative changes, if the district and precinct election commissions adopt any decisions, they are the ones to prove the legality of the decision made when making a complaint during the judicial process," the chairman said.
According to Naghiev, some 262 cases on electoral law have been received by the Baku Court of Appeal since 2007. The cases had to do with the 2008 presidential elections, referendum, the 2009municipal elections and parliamentary elections in 2010.
"The Baku Court of Appeal received five complaints in connection with the violation of the right to vote in the presidential election of 2008, three complaints - in connection with the referendum on introduction of amendments to the Constitution in 2009, 16 - in connection with the municipal elections and 190 cases in connection with violations during the 2010 parliamentary elections. Of these, corresponding decisions were made with regard to 160 cases, and 25 cases have been returned due to non-compliance with procedural rules when filing a complaint," Naghiyev said.
The court president also noted that most of the trials had to with the recognition of the voters' signatures, and the OIC recommended to pay special attention to the issue of recognition of signatures.