On Sunday, Azerbaijani Central Election Commission announced they annulled election results at 11 polling stations, citing they took all necessary steps to hold “transparent and fair elections”.
ll received protocols, as well as information on social media resources were checked. This work was facilitated thanks to numerous web cameras, the introduction of which is Azerbaijan’s innovative experience.
“Mikroskop Media” was one of the media outlets monitoring the polling stations online actively and revealing “fraud” on Social Media networks.
One of the polling stations whose result has been annulled was where “Mikroskop Media” exposed Precinct Election Commission members who were stuffing ballots to the box one by one.
Four out of other polling stations were monitored and frauds in these polling stations were revealed also by other independent media outlets such as Abzas Media and Toplum TV.
In three polling stations, Abzas Media revealed one citizen was voting several times. Toplum TV also exposed the same scheme that happened in another polling station.
On February 7 the early presidential election was held in Azerbaijan. According to the final results of the CEC that was announced on February 11, Ilham Aliyev who just secured his fifth term received 92,12% of votes.
Results for other candidates as follows:
Zahid Oruj – 2.17%
Fazil Mustafa – 1.99%
Gudrat Hasanguliyev – 1.72%
Razi Nurullayev – 0.80%
Elshad Nabiyev – 0.66%
Fuad Aliyev – 0.54%
Opposition political parties boycotted the snap elections. In statements they emphasised that the election was held in a “non-democratic environment”. The Musavat Party demanded the annulment of the election results.
The joint observation mission from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) stated that the election took place in a restrictive environment.
“The CEC registered seven candidates, including the incumbent President. A number of nominated candidates did not complete the signature collection process, some claiming lack of sufficient time and difficulties in accessing the CEC.”
