Getting ready for Parliamentary elections on 7 Novmber in Azerbaijan. Photo: Mehman Huseynov/AMC

Media in Azerbaijan are doing their best to provide balanced coverage of the process ahead of the Parliamentary Election on 7 November 2010. But the pre-election campaign is littered with traps and so-called “black PR”, which calls on citizens to drop voting all together, reports Gulnara Akhundova

By Gulnara Akhundova, Baku

While rushing to work in the morning, my next door neighbour tries to involve me in a small community assembly to seek some advice on where to hang the promotional poster for an election candidate from our constituency. ‘In the middle of nowhere’ one of my neighbours, a 65-year-old taxi driver, answers. The guy seems to be very disappointed with the candidate from the ruling party, who has occupied a seat in parliament for the past five years, but, according to my angry neighbour, has not brought anything of value to the constituency.

A city and a country of contrasts

We continue our discussion with the taxi driver while heading to the Azerbaijan Media Center, a place where the media and civil society speak out on the role of citizens in politics and elections, in particular. My driver looks like a virtuoso skillfully avoiding the pits and bumps of one of the narrow streets, just five minutes away from downtown. Here, brand new, attractive signs of voting polls contradict the poor roads and small garbage dumps.

It is not a secret that Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, is a city of contrast. We pass a poor woman who makes her living by selling lemons in front of a billboard with a fancy ad for the Chopard boutique. We stop and ask her what she thinks of the upcoming elections. It is not a surprise that she has no intention to participate in the parliamentary elections in November.

MPs met with different expectations

Now, each resident can easily find his or her voting poll but the big question is whether the citizenry is actually aware of the process, the role of the MPs and their election platforms. To many ordinary Azerbaijani citizens, like my neighbors and the taxi driver, the role of the MP is something more relevant to the municipality.

We drop in at one of the voting polls along our way. The professional and friendly staff do their best to provide us with information. They kindly answered all of our questions, and we become convinced that they are well prepared for the elections.

According to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) observation mission’s interim report, the Central Election Commission (CEC) is very active in making preparations for these elections. CEC has launched extensive voter education campaign and has conducted training for lower-level commissions. CEC sessions are open to the media and observers, the same report says.

'We want the process to be transparent’, stated the Head of the Public Policy Department at the Presidential Administration, Ali Hasanov in August 2010.  Now, two months following this statement and the kickoff of the pre-election campaign on October 15^th, freedom of expression watchdogs have become very active in doubting Hasanov’s words.

Namely, the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, the body that started monitoring  the national broadcast, and reported that the activities conducted by the candidates from opposition and independent parties were not covered, while the president and chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party received a great deal of positive coverage.

Media center contributes to ensuring transparency

Meanwhile, Hasanov, who is also a member of the New Azerbaijan Party, has called on mass media organisations to be active during these elections.

Both the media and media-related organisations are indeed active on the eve of the elections. Political statements, monitoring missions and various media reports have been an issue during this period. The Azerbaijan Media Center has also made its contribution towards the transparency of the elections by organizing a study tour to Sweden for a group of Azerbaijani journalists.

Seven political and election reporters are now observing the coverage of the September 2010 elections in Sweden, and on their return they will implement the recommendations and lesson learnt with their local colleagues.

Today, the Azerbaijani media does its best to provide balanced and objective coverage of the election process in Azerbaijan. Having kicked off on October 15^th, the pre-election campaign is being spiced with traps and so called “Black PR”.

- Did you see the scandalous video? Is that our opposition, he asks.

We’ve almost reached our destination when the taxi driver asks me this question.  Recently, the Azadlyg opposition newspaper’s director, Azar Ahmadov, had to resign from his position, because of a sex video distributed on social networks. The Chief Editor of Azadlyg daily considers the video as a provocation against his newspaper.

Most political experts in Baku expect the governing New Azerbaijan Party to triumph handily in the upcoming vote. Numerous street polls show that citizens do not expect any changes either in the political agenda or in the work of the existing parliament.

- I will probably not give my vote to any candidate unless I get a concrete promise to improve the waste-management system or restore the road in my neighborhood, says the taxi driver at the end of our ride.