Home > 2.6 Campaign finance > AZERBAIJAN - Final Opinion on the amendments to the Election Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 59
 

Along with mostly technical changes, only a limited number of substantial amendments have been adopted in response to the 2003 and 2004 joint recommendations and 2005 Interim opinion of OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission. These include:

 

-         improvement of the administrative practices related to the creation of normal conditions for the work of the election commissions (amendments 3 and 6);

-         an expansion of the rights of observers to cover the post-election period, although the amendment does not fully address the recommendation (amendment 12);

-         increase of the transparency of the process of up-dating of the Voters list by posting it on a specific CEC web site (amendment 14). However, this step is undermined by the elimination of the requirement to publicly display the Voters list with addresses of voters (amendment 15);

-         return of the registration deposit to those candidates who receive at least 3 per cent of the valid votes (amendment 17);

-         the removal of Articles 100.2.4 and 100.2.6 in order to shorten the list of items to be included in the results protocols (amendment 21);

-         increase of the public confidence in the election process by timely announcement of preliminary results (amendments 25 and 26);

-         expeditious investigation of election-related issues by the prosecution (amendment 28);

-         reduction of the deposit paid by nominees who do not collect the 450 signatures necessary to register as a candidate;

-         reduction of the threshold for releasing candidates in presidential elections from the obligation to pay the cost of free airtime and space to 3 percent of valid votes, and reformulation of the threshold calculation to 3 per cent of valid votes for all levels of election (amendments 41 and 44);

-         reduction of the deadline for the CEC to deliver the results of the presidential election to the Constitutional Court to ten days, thereby eliminating a conflict between the Constitution and the Election Code (amendment 45).