LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST GOAJ FOR FAILURE TO DISCLOSE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 001677

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM PHUM PINR AJ
SUBJECT: LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST GOAJ FOR FAILURE TO DISCLOSE
PARLIAMENT'S ROLL-CALL VOTING INFORMATION


Classified By: DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION JASON P. HYLAND PER 1.4(B,D)


1. (C) Political analyst (as well as former Parliamentary
candidate and former Embassy Baku FSN) Ilgar Mammadov,
through his lawyer, filed a lawsuit November 15 against the
GOAJ for failure to disclose information on roll-call votes
in Parliament. Mammadov's lawsuit is based on Article 25 of
the internal regulations of Azerbaijan's Parliament. The
Article outlines open voting procedures using the electronic
system. In the case of a simple procedural vote, Members of
Parliament (MPs) press a button, and voting results are shown
without breakdown by names. In the case of a roll-call vote
(which is the procedure used for most substantive voting),
MPs vote in a similar way but results are broken down by name
and vote. The Article stipulates that "MPs as well as
representatives of mass media have the right to access the
list with the results of both simple and roll-call votes."
Mammadov's lawsuit seeks to obtain information beginning with
the Fall 2005 session.


2. (C) Besides the push towards transparency and
accountability, Mammadov said he is pursuing another goal
with his lawsuit. He feels that publishing the voting results
will shift the topic of political debates in Azerbaijan,
drawing society away from the "street rally route" that
dominated the discourse of Azerbaijan's 2005 Parliamentary
Elections, and, in his view, keeps Azerbaijan's political
system ineffective. Mammadov believes that his lawsuit will
force a higher caliber of political debates that in turn will
reinforce the need for a higher caliber of MPs. He also
pointed out that deeper statistical analysis of Azerbaijan's
political trends will be possible with access to the voting
results.


3. (C) In a meeting with Poloff, Mammadov shared his
frustration with the secretive nature of Parliamentary
procedures. Although he feels part of the GOAJ opposition to
disclosing voting information is because of the actual voting
records, Mammadov put forth another interesting theory: that
the GOAJ doesn't want the attendance records of individual
Members of Parliament (MPs) to be made public. Mammadov
alleged that many of the "star" MPs (particularly First Lady
Mehriban Aliyeva) regularly miss meetings and do not want the
public to know.


4. (SBU) BIO NOTE: Mammadov first came to public attention
prior to the Fall 2005 Parliamentary Elections, when he
announced his independent candidacy. He is currently working
on several projects related to advocacy for public access to
information, including one grant from the Embassy's Democracy
Commission for statistical and legal analysis of financial
statements from candidates for Parliament.
DERSE