ASSA-Irada,
19, May 2008

The envelopes used to insert ballot papers to boxes at the polls may be abolished in Azerbaijan, according to the technical changes proposed for the country's election laws by international experts.

The bill on minor changes to the Election Code was submitted to parliament after over a year-long discussion on the issue between Azerbaijani officials and the Council of Europe Venice Commission.

Head of the President's Office department on legislation and legal expertise, Shahin Aliyev, said the government and CE experts had agreed the addenda and changes of particular importance.

Aliyev said the use of envelopes causes serious problems during the elections, complicates protocols and causes mistakes during their fill-out. He said the draft law envisioned canceling a number of requirements to simplify the process.

Another change proposed for the Election Code concerns exit polls. It stipulates that the Central Election Commission (CEC) will be in charge of accreditation of the organizations conducting such surveys.

The Code is also to be supplemented with an article aiming to prevent illicit interference in the electoral process by officials, legal and natural entities.

As for finger-inking, the procedure is currently carried out by the CEC, but the process will be regulated by legislation after the changes are adopted.

The draft law also envisages increasing the limit for election funds, which was proposed at 500,000 manats ($602,000) for would-be lawmakers and 5 million manats ($6.02 million) for presidential hopefuls.

Aliyev said the only issue that remains to be agreed is changing the composition of election commissions.

"I would not call this an unresolved problem because it had been agreed beforehand with the Venice Commission and other international organizations that the state would not meddle in the issue of altering the make-up of the commissions. Last December, all political parties had been invited to a roundtable on changing their format. The government had initially agreed that whatever the parties agree upon will be the basis for introducing changes to the Election Code. But most opposition parties refused to attend the discussions then, and no common ground was struck on the matter.