You're reading: International monitors: Uneven field in Azeri vote

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — International vote monitors said Monday that ballot box stuffing and an uneven playing field for candidates marred Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections, which look set to be won by President Ilham Aliyev's ruling party.

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe declared that voters in the former Soviet republic were denied all the necessary information on candidates to make an informed choice.

"Limitations on media freedom and the freedom of assembly and a deficient candidate registration process further weakened the opposition and made a vibrant political discourse almost impossible," a statement said.

Aliyev has ruled the energy-rich nation since 2003 and looks set to continue indefinitely after a referendum he pushed through in 2008 abolished presidential terms, drawing wrath from rights activists, who accuse him of authoritarianism.

The country’s Central Elections Commission head, Mazahir Panahov, said in a televised news conference early Monday that about 70 seats in the 125-seat legislature went to representatives of Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaijan party. A small fraction of votes remained to be counted.

Monday’s statement by the observers noted that, while 90 percent of the 1,100 polling stations they visited were assessed positively, serious problems such as ballot-stuffing were found in the remaining 10 percent. There were 5,175 polling stations nationwide.

"The conduct of these elections overall was not sufficient to constitute meaningful progress in the democratic development of the country," the statement said, adding that control over media made for a "restricted competitive environment" and an "uneven playing field for candidates."

Opponents of Aliyev have already cried foul, saying they were denied a fair shot in the election. The opposition bloc Musavat had been expected to compete, but its leader Isa Qambar told The Associated Press that none of its candidates had won seats.

Musavat and other opposition parties complained Sunday that their observers were blocked from some polling stations and also reported cases of multiple voting.

"We demand the results be annulled and new elections be conducted on the basis of revised election legislation," Qambar said. He called the vote "illegitimate, undemocratic, untransparent, and not free."

Qambar had said earlier the group’s chances of winning at least some seats were high but the results would depend on the will of the presidential administration rather than popular opinion.

Just over 50 percent of the 4.95 million eligible voters took part in Sunday’s election.

Qambar earlier said the opposition would consider calling a protest rally for Tuesday, but few expect a repeat of the mass protests that followed the last parliamentary elections five years ago and what appeared to be widespread fraud.

Recent opposition rallies have drawn only a few dozen activists, and the election campaign was far quieter than those of past years.