Azerbaijan: Apathy Amid Opposition Presidential Election Boycott
With the presidential election in Azerbaijan just two weeks away, Oneworld.Net carries a partner post from EurasiaNet on the prevailing sense of apathy in society. The major online human rights and development portal (for which I’m Armenia Country Editor) includes its own explanation as way of an introduction to the piece.
OneWorld.net’s take: Although they will have seven candidates to choose from in the upcoming presidential election, the majority of Azerbaijani voters remain apathetic due to a perceived absence of competition among the contenders.
Azerbaijan is one of several former Soviet states suffering from “a paradox of plenty” as abundant energy resources have increased the trend towards authoritarianism, says a report released by a democracy watchdog this July.
Azerbaijan’s democratic status is “tenuous,” reaffirms OneWorld UK in it’s Azerbaijan country guide. The 2003 election which brought President Ilham Aliyev to power and the 2005 parliamentary elections that produced an overwhelming victory for the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) were considered by international observers to be deeply flawed. Both elections were preceded by the suppression of opposition candidates, activists, and parties through intimidation, bureaucratic restrictions, and exclusion from the media.
Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders says that four days of media monitoring shows that even with an opposition boycott there is no level playing ground. Interestingly, and becoming somewhat of a new phenomenon in the region, one OSCE/ODIHR election observer will be blogging from the country during the election campaign period and presumably afterwards.
- Published:
- 10.02.08 / 12pm by Onnik
- Category:
- Azerbaijan Presidential Election 2008, Blogs, Democracy, News Briefs, Opinion, Parties
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