AZERBAIJAN: A SHOW TO MAKE A CAT LAUGH
By Ivan Gharibyan

news.am
Dec 23 2009
Armenia

The Azeri authorities have once again made everyone laugh by their
clumsy attempt to lay claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. The December 23
local elections "presented an opportunity."

The election campaign has been marked by too many manifestations of
the "Aliyev-style democracy." Specifically, most of the candidates
were nominated by the Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) Party. The
Opposition, which attempted to participate in the elections, was not
provided with airtime on the Public Television of Azerbaijan, as,
to meet the requirement, it had to nominate candidates for at least
50% of the municipalities. In present-day Azerbaijan, with all the
media outlets controlled by the presidential administration, and many
opposition journalists jailed, none of the political forces except
for the ruling party is able to make a serious bid for participating
in the elections.

At the same time, Azerbaijan, as usual, has no problems with voter
turnout. Whole staffs were brought to the polling stations, and the
central TV channels reported on "the people voting in an organized
way."

The greatest joy, however, was an election show in the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR). Headquartered in Baku, the Central Electoral
Commission of Azerbaijan even "opened" two election districts in the
NKR. Thus, while incessantly speaking of the Armenian occupation
of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan claims elections are held in the
"occupied" territories.

The "voting" in the two "election districts" in the NKR will help
the ruling party to get the necessary number of votes. The former
Azerbaijani residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region were
to take part in the voting, but they left the region as a result of
the conflict and settled down in Azerbaijan. They have actually voted,
but the number of voters has been exaggerated: Azerbaijan still hopes
for the return of refugees to Nagorno-Karabakh and is constantly
exaggerating their number. So the Central Electoral Commission
reported a high voter turnout in the "two districts" in the NKR,
which are the product of the Azeri leaders’ "great imagination."

Well, the neighboring state decided to amuse everyone a little
once again. The "Aliyev-style democracy" is developing. Even
the Azeri President and the First Lady were fingerprinted at the
polling station – Azerbaijan is doing its best to show the world the
"exemplary" elections, with most of the opposition forces barred from
participating in them. But we advise Azerbaijan not to draw other
states, particularly the NKR, into this "democratic development"
process so as not to make cats laugh.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress