EMDS announced goals for the next two years in preparation for the elections
On 24 July, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS) organized a seminar on “Goals and methodological development of local election observation”. The seminar aimed to inform cooperating social institutions and civil society activists about the goals of EMDS on the eve of the next elections and to exchange ideas on improving domestic election observation.
EMDS Chairperson Anar Mammadli stated that the organization’s objectives now include not only preparing for election observation but also protecting political freedoms in the inter-election period: “It is not enough to monitor the situation of freedom of expression, political pluralism and freedom of assembly in the country and prepare for election observation without trying to democratize the political environment.” From this point of view, in the field of democratizing the electoral process and ensuring transparency, the EMDS has the following goals for 2023-2025
1) Follow-up on the implementation of the recommendations of international observation missions on elections held in Azerbaijan, including the organization of public advocacy for the elimination of legal and political restrictions on local election observation;
2) Promote local election observation among women and youth;
3) Updating Code of Conduct and EMDS’s training materials for volunteers on election observation;
4) Attracting new people to EMDS’s expert group on election observation and increasing their skills
The participants of the seminar shared their proposals for enhancing network for domestic election observation among different regions of the country and citizen groups, and to involve citizens in voluntary election observation.
Bashir Suleymanli, chairperson of the Institute for Citizens Rights, believes that it is impossible to contribute to the electoral field in the short term and that domestic election observation requires long-term preparation: “At the moment, the political environment does not allow civil society organizations to work freely, so public enthusiasm for the electoral process and political participation has severely diminished.”
Samir Kazimli, co-founder of Legal Platform of Initiative Group, expressed concern that the election issue has taken a back seat on the agenda of international organizations. According to him, more attention should be paid to Azerbaijan’s fulfilment of its international obligations regarding free and fair elections.
Araz Aliyev, representative of the NIDA Civic Movement, noted that political parties and civil society groups should prepare for the elections well in advance and public education should be permanent.
Afiaddin Mammadov, a representative of the Labour Table Initiative group, said that the participation of women and young people in the elections is important and that it is important for political parties to cooperate in this area and prepare voter participation and election monitoring separately.
Farid Imanov (Student Power Center) recommended holding periodic meetings in Baku and the regions with the participation of social activists and student youth on the importance of election monitoring.
