Opposition ridicules ballot

Leaders of the Musavat party Isa Qambar, the Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan Etibar Mammadov, the Popular Front Party reformers Ali Karimov, and secretary general of the Democratic Party Sardar Calaloglu said in a news conference at the Hyatt Park Hotel Monday that "even 14 percent of the vote eligible hadn't been to the 24 August referendum".

The politicians alleged that "voters were cracked down by both police and civilians, one person voted in many election precincts, observers were barred from watching the ballot in some constituencies, and members of the local election commission voted instead of the mentally ill".

The opposition leaders warned they would collect data on all the irregularities to apply to court and, if necessary, to the European Court.

On Tuesday ten political parties, Musavat, the PNIA, ADP, PFPA, Taraqqi, APP, Civil Solidarity, Civil Unity, and Adalat decided to hold protests in mid September to protest the results of the referendum.

Disapproval

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rapporteur Andreas Gross has described the August 24 referendum with a “different impression”.

“I was content with the poll in the first half of the day, but changed my mind by the evening. The reason was improper organization of the referendum and public confusion. My point was backed by other international observers I talked to”, he said.

He was not an official CE observer.

None of the international onlookers didn’t manage to monitor the referendum process that took two months due to the time pressure, according to Gross.