International election monitors said on Monday that Azerbaijan's parliamentary election on Sunday had been tainted by fraud and abuse and failed to meet democratic standards. The monitors expressed Western disappointment that the nation had not lived up to the pledges of its president to hold a fair vote.
The unsparing assessment, issued by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, lent credibility to a bloc of opposition parties that had already declared the vote fraudulent. And it moved this small, oil-rich country on the Caspian Sea toward the possibility of clashes between opposition members and the police, who have dispersed antigovernment street rallies this year with force.
The bloc, known as Azadliq, the Azerbaijani word for freedom, vowed to hold peaceful demonstrations beginning today, seeking to overturn many results in districts throughout the country.
"These elections were falsified," said Ali Kerimli, the head of one party, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. His own bid to return to parliament ended on Sunday night when the police and election officials seized ballots and election documents indicating that he was leading in several polling stations.
Kerimli framed the showdown in the broadest terms, saying that the issue was whether Azerbaijan, a secular Muslim nation between Russia and Iran, would move toward European traditions or remain a highly corrupt post-Soviet state.
The rising tensions posed problems for President Ilham Aliyev, who had staked his personal credibility on repeated assurances that the vote would be fair, and also for the Bush administration, which had embraced Aliyev as a reliable oil exporter and an ally in counterterrorism efforts.
In Washington, a US State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, noted "some improvements" over previous ballots, but said, "There were major irregularities and fraud that are of serious concern." He urged the government of Azerbaijan to investigate quickly and thoroughly.
Britain, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, also urged Azerbaijan to investigate the allegations promptly.
On Monday, Aliyev played down the report, barely acknowledging it in an address to the nation on state television. He briefly and incompletely referred to the assessment of the observers, and never mentioned that they found the vote undemocratic and that they expressed deep disappointment in his government.
Instead, he used his appearance to announce that the election had been free, fair, and transparent, and a credit to Azerbaijan's commitment to democracy.
He also said that seven or eight of the 125 parliamentary districts had reports of violations that would be investigated, but assured the public that "the will of Azerbaijan people has found its reflection in the elections."
State television did not broadcast the assessment of the independent observers, choosing to show congratulatory statements from election officials, from observers commissioned by the state and from Russia. It was not clear whether the Azerbaijani public knew of the independent monitors' dim view of the conduct of the government.
With almost all votes counted, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party had won 63 of 125 seats, according to the central election commission, while the opposition had won six.
The remaining seats were won by independent candidates and members of small parties, many of which were loyal to the government, ensuring that Aliyev would maintain his strong hold over the body.
For all of the allegations and unease, the oil-buoyed government of Aliyev, which in recent weeks claimed to thwart a coup coordinated by the opposition, was not generally regarded as being vulnerable to revolution.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was