2013 Azerbaijani presidential election

Presidential Elections held in 2013 in Azerbaijan, considered rigged Azerbaijan 1991 presidential 2008 Azerbaijani presidential election 2008 2018 Azerbaijani presidential election 2018 2013 10 9 y 71.62% Ilham Aliyev par Claude Truong-Ngoc juin 2014.jpg Ilham Aliyev New Azerbaijan Party 3,126,113 84.54% Cəmil Həsənli (06.08.2014).jpg Jamil Hasanli FFDEAD NCDF 204,642 5.53% Map of 2008, 2013, and 2018 Azerbaijani presidential elections.png Results by constituency#1D75B9 darkgray Ilham Aliyev President Ilham Aliyev New Azerbaijan Party Ilham Aliyev New Azerbaijan Party Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 9 October 2013.http://en.apa.az/xeber_central_election_commission_declares_aze_197152.html Central Election Commission declares Azerbaijani presidential elections will be held on October 9 Azerbaijan Business Centre 14 January 2013 The result was a victory for incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, who received a reported 85% of the vote, whilst leading opposition candidate Jamil Hasanli finished second with a reported 6% of the vote. The elections were marred by claims of irregularities; official results were accidentally released by the government's Central Election Commission through a mobile app before voting began, giving Aliyev a victory with 73% of the vote. The commission later recalled the results, claiming that they were taken from the 2008 elections. The claim was disputed, given that the results accidentally released included the candidates from the 2013 elections, and that the percentages differed from the 2008 results. Opposition candidates were imprisoned and faced restrictions in the lead-up to the elections, which led the European Court of Human Rights to issue a judgment against the Aliyev regime.Waal Thomas De https://books.google.com/books?id=glByDwAAQBAJ The Caucasus: An Introduction 2018 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-068308-5 227–228 en2013-10-08 Azerbaijan's pre-determined president en-GB BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24450227 2024-01-012014-05-22 Dispatches: Court Slams Azerbaijan for Rights Abuses Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/22/dispatches-court-slams-azerbaijan-rights-abuses Human Rights Watch en The Aliyev regime put up numerous non-genuine candidates to confuse voters and dilute support for opposition candidates. Freedom of speech was restricted prior to the elections. OSCE monitors reported candidate and voter intimidation and a restrictive media environment, including arrests and the use of force against journalists and activists. 92% of the coverage on the six main TV channels was dedicated to the incumbent president.OSCE/ODIHR Final Report on Azerbaijan Presidential election, 24 December 2013 Background All previous elections in Azerbaijan observed by OSCE fell short of meeting international standards.Azerbaijan to Move against International Organizations? http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66701 11 June 2013 Eurasianet 15 March 2013 In 2009, an amendment was made to the Constitution of Azerbaijan, which abolished the limit of two consecutive presidential terms and allowed incumbent Aliyev, who had already served for two terms, to run for president for unlimited number of times.http://www.europeanforum.net/news/549/ Controversial constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan passed, 19 Mar 2009 22 November 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052527/http://www.europeanforum.net/news/549/ 4 March 2016 dead dmy-all The constitutional amendment was condemned by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, which stated that "the abolition of existing limits preventing the unlimited re-election of a President is a step back, in terms of democratic achievements".Venice Commission Questions Constitutional Changes In Azerbaijanhttp://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-AD(2009)010-e Venice Commission :: Council of Europe www.venice.coe.int The amendment was also criticized by the Azerbaijani opposition.http://iwpr.net/report-news/opposition-condemns-changes-azeri-constitution Opposition Condemns Changes to Azeri Constitution 2013-11-22 2013-12-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20131203001020/http://iwpr.net/report-news/opposition-condemns-changes-azeri-constitution dead On the basis of the amendment in 2013 Ilham Aliyev ran for president for the third time. After his visit to Azerbaijan the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Jean-Claude Mignon called on the authorities to fully respect their obligations.PACE President: Elections in Azerbaijan Must Fully Comply with European Standards http://contact.az/docs/2013/Politics/052900037950en.htm#.UcdDHTuG0ks 23 June 2013 contact.az 29 May 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20150610210526/http://contact.az/docs/2013/Politics/052900037950en.htm#.UcdDHTuG0ks 2015-06-10 dead However, overall, in 2013 elections the Central Election Commission (CEC) demonstrated efficiency in administrative preparations for the elections and observed the legal deadlines.http://www.osce.org/institutions/110015?download=true OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Report Candidates thumbnail|Bulletin for election in the voting cabin On 7 June 2013 the New Azerbaijan Party nominated incumbent President Ilham Aliyev as their official presidential candidate.The Fifth Congress of the "Yeni Azerbaijan Party" nominated Chairman of the Party and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to stand in the presidential election in October 2013 http://en.president.az/articles/8393 11 June 2013 7 June 2013 Official website of the President of the Republic of AzerbaijanAzerbaijani Ruling Party Nominates Aliyev For Presidency https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-aliyev-nominated-president/25010042.html 11 June 2013 7 June 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty MP Mubariz Gurbanli announced that according to the Election Code of Azerbaijan Republic, the party had not only filled its signature requirements but could get more than the minimum 40,000 required signatures. He said: "The signature lists have been ready for already 4-5 days, but they can be submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC) starting from 20 August, that is, 50 days before the elections under the legislation. So, our employees will submit the signature lists to CEC tomorrow. Under the law, the CEC will issue a document confirming the candidate’s participation in the elections after it reviews them."http://www.news.az/articles/politics/81865 News.Az - Ruling party submits Aliyev's documents to CEC www.news.az In the meantime, playwright Rustam Ibragimbekov was chosen as the leader of the newly created National Council of Democratic Forces. The NCDF brought together main opposition forces, including Musavat, the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party, Open Society, Forum of Intellectuals. The alliance set as its main goal the "peaceful transition to democracy."Agayev Zulfugar Azeri President Set to Run for Third Term as Opposition Unites https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-07/azeri-president-set-to-run-for-third-term-as-opposition-unites.html 11 June 2013 7 June 2013 Bloomberg L.P.Evgrashina Lada Oscar-winning Azeri says will challenge Aliyev in presidential race http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-azerbaijan-opposition-idUKBRE9560XX20130607 https://web.archive.org/web/20160306154001/http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-azerbaijan-opposition-idUKBRE9560XX20130607 dead March 6, 2016 11 June 2013 7 June 2013 Reuters Ibragimbekov was denied registration by the CEC because he "along with the citizenship of Azerbaijan, also of Russian citizenship and his commitment to the Russian Federation."Azerbaijani CEC rejects Rustam Ibragimbekov as presidential candidate http://eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/25602/ 20 September 2013 Caucasian Knot 27 August 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054356/http://eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/25602/ 21 September 2013 deadAzerbaijan: Ibragimbekov Rejected as Presidential Candidate http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67433 20 September 2013 Eurasianet 27 August 2013 In late August, the united opposition picked historian Jamil Hasanli as its candidate.Samedova Sevda Azeri Opposition Forced to Switch Candidate http://iwpr.net/report-news/azeri-opposition-forced-switch-candidate 9 October 2013 Institute for War & Peace Reporting 29 August 2013 During the rally on 28 September 2013, Hasanli called on people to vote for him to "end the dictatorship of one family in Azerbaijan."Opposition Presidential Candidate Holds Baku Rally https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-hasanli-baku-rally/25120757.html 9 October 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 28 September 2013 A day before the election, main opposition candidate Jamil Hasanli stated that he is "running in this election with the paramount aim of ending 20 years of the Aliyev dynasty's misrule of my country, and restoring Azerbaijani democracy."Azerbaijan must use this election to end the Aliyev dynasty https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/08/azerbaijan-election-aliyev-dynasty-polls 9 October 2013 The Guardian 8 October 2013 Conduct An official smartphone app run by the Central Election Commission (CEC) inadvertently released final election results a day before polls had opened. The results showed Ilham Aliyev having won with 72.76% of the recorded votes, while the nearest opposing candidate, Jamil Hasanli, tallied just 7.4%. The data was recalled, with an official claim that the app's developer had mistakenly tested the app with the 2008 election results, but the data released did not match the voter totals nor percentages of the previous election.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/azerbaijan-releases-election-results-before-the-polls-even-open-8869732.html https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/azerbaijan-releases-election-results-before-the-polls-even-open-8869732.html 2022-05-01 subscription Azerbaijan Releases Election Results... Before the Polls Even Open Luhn Alec 9 October 2013 The Daily Telegraph http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67607 Azerbaijan: Election Commission's App Shows Vote Results before the Election Lomsadze Giorgi 9 October 2013 EurasiaNet On 10 October 2013, Hasanli called for the results to be annulled due to alleged vote-rigging, claiming the elections were not free and fair because of electoral fraud and government control of all television channels.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24474753 Azerbaijan Aliyev: Opponent Hasanli wants vote annulled BBC News 9 October 2013 10 October 2013 Results Ilham Aliyev New Azerbaijan Party 3126113 Jamil Hasanli National Council of Democratic Forces 204642 #FFDEAD Igbal Aghazade az İqbal Ağazadə Party of Hope 88723 Gudrat Gasanguliev Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party 73702 Zahid Oruj Independent 53839 Ilyas Ismayilov Justice Party 39722 Araz Alizadeh Azerbaijani Social Democratic Party 32069 Faraj Guliyev National Revival Movement Party 31926 Hafiz Hacıyev az Modern Equality Party 24461 Sardar Jalaloglu Azerbaijan Democratic Party 22773 36622 5214787 CEC Reactions International organizations Council of Europe — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe short-term (4 days) delegation in the statement issued jointly with the European Parliament said that "overall around election day we have observed a free, fair and transparent electoral process." It did note, however, there was "[a lack of] respect [for] fundamental freedoms during the months before the election." and the election was "far from perfect."Presidential election in Azerbaijan: joint statement by PACE and EP delegations http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/News/News-View-EN.asp?newsid=4699&lang=2&cat=31 PACE 11 October 2013 10 October 2013 OSCE logo.svg Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe /Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights— The OSCE/ODIHR observation mission, which consisted of 13 Baku-based international experts and 30 long-term observers,http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/azerbaijan/104355 Presidential Election, 9 October 2013 - OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe criticized the electoral process in their conclusions saying that it "was undermined by limitations on the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association that did not guarantee a level playing field for candidates."International Election Observation Mission Republic Of Azerbaijan — Presidential Election, 9 October 2013 http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/106901 OSCE 11 October 2013 The head of mission stated that their "observers received allegations of intimidation, witnessed even physical attacks on journalists in the lead up to an election day, which we found seriously flawed."OSCE observers cry foul over 'seriously flawed' Azeri election http://www.euronews.com/2013/10/10/osce-observers-cry-foul-over-seriously-flawed-azeri-election/ Euronews 11 October 2013 10 October 2013 European Union The Statement made by the EU High Representative and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Commissioner Štefan Füle on Presidential elections in Azerbaijan stressed the results of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission, "the OSCE/ODIHR's preliminary conclusions state that significant problems were observed throughout all stages of election day processes, and identify serious shortcomings"http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-879_en.htm European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - Statement by the Spokespersons of EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and Commissioner Štefan Füle on Presidential elections in Azerbaijan europa.eu States United States — The State Department said that the election "fell short of international standards." The statement, which aligned with the position of the OSCE/ODIHR, also named the procedural irregularities such as 1) ballot box stuffing; 2) serious problems with vote counting; and 3) failure to record the number of received ballots. "Leading up to election day, the Government of Azerbaijan also maintained a repressive political environment. Authorities interfered with the media and civil society routinely, sometimes violently interrupted peaceful rallies and meetings before and occasionally during the campaign period, and jailed a number of opposition and youth activists."Azerbaijan Presidential Election https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/10/215283.htm State Department 11 October 2013 10 October 2013 France — Senator Thani Mohamed Soilihi, who observed the election, said that he does not "see any difference in the election processes of our countries [France and Azerbaijan]."EU ponders reaction to Azerbaijan's 'appgate' http://euobserver.com/foreign/121741 11 October 2013 EUobserver 10 October 2013 Turkey — Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated Ilham Aliyev on his election victory. Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Ilham Aliyev and called the election "fair and stable". Azerbaijani officials have bashed those who criticizes their elections. The Chief of Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Ramiz Mehdiyev, accused the US officials in recommending them to rig the elections to show that the incumbent President Ilham Aliyev was winning with 75% of the votes and to give 25% to the opposition candidate, to make it look believable.Baku Continues Its War of Words against the United States - UPDATED International scandal The controversial assessments by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe/European Parliament and OSCE/ODIHR sparked a major scandal, as for the first time the reports of these authoritative European organizations openly contradicted one other.http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Azerbaijan/Europe-Azerbaijan-and-caviar-144030 Europe, Azerbaijan, and caviar Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Further, many European experts and parliamentarians, among them also deputies of the European Parliament, harshly criticized the reports of the European Parliament and PACE as being biased.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24573024 European MPs' praise for Azerbaijan election sparks row BBC News 17 October 2013http://euobserver.com/opinion/121803 MEPs' shameful support for the Azerbaijan election EU Observerhttp://www.panorama.am/en/analytics/2013/10/16/a-gross/ Andreas Gross Azerbaijan with regressing democracy is patient placed in reanimation ward at Council of Europe www.panorama.am 25 October 2013http://www.greens-efa.eu/azerbaijan-elections-10744.html Azerbaijan elections The Socialist Group in the European Parliament has distanced itself from the words of the observer mission EP / PACE, stating that the differences between the findings of the delegation of parliamentarians and the OSCE are so far away that it cannot be supported at all.http://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/newsroom/statement-european-parliament-election-observation-mission-azerbaijan Statement on the European Parliament election observation mission to Azerbaijan - Socialists & Democrats www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu The Greens/EFA Group of the European Parliament said that they do not endorse the statements made by the EP delegation. The Green foreign affairs spokesperson Werner Schulz said, The shortcomings of EP's own election observation mission to Azerbaijan call into question the existence of such short-term missions in general... The European Parliament loses credibility with statements ignoring the reality of the situation in the country. A handful of MEPs are endangering the European Parliament's reputation in fighting for human rights, democracy and rule of law.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24573024 European furore over Azeri election Laurence Peter 17 October 2013 www.bbc.co.uk The European Stability Initiative (ESI) think tank has published a detailed report on observation missions participating in Azerbaijani elections 2013 titled "Disgraced: Azerbaijan and the end of election monitoring as we know it". The report, which was the third one of its kind on Azerbaijan issued by ESI,The first report titled "Caviar Diplomacy". How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe was published on 24 May 2012. The second report titled A Portrait of Deception Monitoring Azerbaijan or Why Pedro Agramunt should resign was published on 22 January 2013 highlighted the drawbacks of international short-term observer missions, bringing up facts on that many election observers were either bribed by the Azerbaijani government or had some other vested interest in praising the fraudulent elections.http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/esi_document_id_145.pdf "Disgraced. Azerbaijan and the end of election monitoring as we know it." 5 November 2013, Berlin Other attempts to investigate the sources of funding of the organizations that observed the elections in Azerbaijan, have proved to be futile, which further reinforced the suspicion that their "experts" were funded by Azerbaijan.https://www.rferl.org/a/shadowy-western-observers-election-azerbaijan-aliyev/25132176.html Who Are The Shadowy Western Observers Weighing In On Azerbaijan's Election? RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Aftermath On 12 October around 4,000 people protested against the election results. About ten protesters were arrested, while others were beaten.Grove Thomas Azeri police beat, detain demonstrators after vote protest rally https://www.reuters.com/article/us-azerbaijan-election-protest-idUSBRE99B06Q20131012 12 October 2013 Reuters 12 October 2013 References https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/09/oops-azerbaijan-released-election-results-before-voting-had-even-started/ Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even started The Washington Post Fisher Max https://archive.today/20131019141522/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/09/oops-azerbaijan-released-election-results-before-voting-had-even-started/ 2013-10-19 9 October 2013 10 October 2013 External links Registered candidates Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan Azerbaijan’s Aliyev wins a predicted third term as president // Euronews. 10/10/2013 Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Presidential election, 2013 Category:Presidential elections in Azerbaijan Category:2013 controversies