Tag Archives: election

Newspaper editor jailed in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Azerbaijan handed a five year prison sentence for possessing drugs, inciting hatred and treason to Hilal Mamedov, editor of the Talyshi Sado newspaper, a Talysh-language newspaper in the south of the country.

International human rights and media lobbyists said Azerbaijani authorities were using the courts to lock up the editors of newspaper that didn’t suit their agenda.

“I am saddened to see that the hostile environment for free media in Azerbaijan has not improved but is rather growing, as yet another journalist has received a lengthy prison sentence today,” said Dunja Mijatovic, the media representative for the OSCE, Europe’s governance lobby group.

The authorities have said that Hilal Mamedov was trying to destabilise the country. They have long been suspicious of the Talysh minority, a group of roughly 100,000 people who live along the border with Iran. The interior ministry has released a statement accusing Mamedov of undermining Azerbaijan’s security with inflammatory articles in the newspaper. It also accused him of spying for Iran.

Five years ago the then-editor of Talyshi Sado, Novruzali Mamedov (no relation to Hilal Mamedov) was also imprisoned on similar charges. He died in prison. Media groups said that he had been denied adequate medical treatment.

Azerbaijan has a poor media rights record and in her statement, the OSCE’s Ms Mijatovic said this was worsening in the run up to the Oct. 9 presidential election.

Ms Mijatovic may be right. Opposition journalists in Baku have been harassed and imprisoned while pro-government journalists have received new apartments.

Hilal Mamedov’s imprisonment is different, though, and it should be viewed as part of the dispute between the Talysh and the Azerbaijani state rather than through central politics.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Bobonazarova runs for president in Tajikistan

OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s main opposition surprised observers by picking a female human rights activist to be its candidate in a presidential election scheduled for November, media reported. Oynihol Bobonazarova is the first woman to run in a presidential election in Tajikistan. President Emomali Rakhmon is guaranteed a win.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Georgia’s PM creates a new private equity fund

SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It can be useful having a billionaire as your PM.

This year foreign direct investment in Georgia has slumped. This is bad news for Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili who pledged that FDI would increase after he won a parliamentary election last October. It’s bad news also for the Georgia; FDI is a major cornerstone of the economy.

In September, Georgia’s foreign minister, Nodar Khaduri, said FDI this year would probably be around $1b, half the initial estimate.

Political instability is likely the main cause of foreigners’ reticence to invest. A presidential election, that could be genuinely destabilising, is set for Oct. 27.

So, Mr Ivanishvili has come up with a solution. On Sept. 30 he announced a $6b private equity fund that would invest in the country. He personally will, reportedly, pledge $1b to the fund. The other main investors are Dhabi Group and Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) as well as Turkish, Chinese and Kazakh investment funds.

Of the $6b, half will be invested in the energy sector and the rest in manufacturing and tourism.

Coming less than a month before the election, this is a clever ploy from Mr Ivanishvili. Time will tell, though, whether the fund is just a vote winner or a genuine investment vehicle.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Former Armenian candidate tried for murder

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Yerevan sentenced Vardan Sedrakian, a candidate in a presidential election in February, to jail for trying to assassinate a rival. Gunmen shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikian, also a presidential candidate, a few weeks before the election on Feb. 18. The attempted assassination nearly delayed the vote.

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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Presidential candidates confirmed in Georgia

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s central election commission confirmed that 23 people had registered for its Oct. 27 presidential election. The two main contenders are Giorgi Margvelashvili from PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition and David Bakradze from President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement party.

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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

‘Kardashian bond’ launched in Armenia

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kim Kardashian, the 32-year-old Los Angeles-based ethnic Armenian, is best known across the globe for starring in a reality TV show. Now she’ll also be known, in some circles at least, for lending her name to Armenia’s inaugural sovereign debt issue.

Armenia’s $700m Eurobond issue on Sept. 23, unofficially dubbed the ‘Kardashian bond’, did rather well. This was Armenia’s first sovereign debt issue and a real test of investors’ confidence in the country and appetite for risk in the South Caucasus.

Armenia’s government had said it needed to raise the cash to pay back a $500m loan it borrowed from Russia in 2009 to weather the global financial crisis.

It’s been a busy, somewhat controversial, year for Armenia with a disputed presidential election in February and a surprise decision last month to eschew closer ties with the EU to instead join Russia’s Customs Union. The economy, too, has caused some concern with inflation hovering around 9%, far above the Central Bank’s target.

Regardless, investors warmed to Armenia’s Kardashian bond and the initial yield on the 7-year bond was shortened to 6.25% from 6.375%, according to Reuters.

Not a bad debut on the sovereign debt market for Armenia and Kim Kardashian.

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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Election debate turns into chaos in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A TV debate between nine of the 10 people standing in Azerbaijan’s presidential election descended into farce when pro-president candidates shouted insults at Camil Hasanli, the only genuine opposition figure. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, standing for re-election, didn’t take part in the debate.

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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Reporter arrested in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Baku arrested opposition journalist Perviz Hashimli for smuggling weapons into Azerbaijan from neighbouring Iran. Mr Hashimli denied the charges. Human rights activists have accused the Azerbaijani government of cracking down on opposition ahead of an Oct. 9 presidential election.

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Azerbaijan’s election campaign starts

SEPT. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officially, campaigning in Azerbaijan’s Oct. 9 presidential election kicked off on Sept. 16 although reports from Baku suggested that not many people have noticed.

The election script already appears to have been written. The vote will deliver a third consecutive five-year term for President Ilham Aliyev and the opposition will complain of fraud and an uneven playing field.

Azerbaijan’s economy is booming and living standards are rising, mainly due to energy sales, although opposition and human rights groups complain that this has come at the expense of personal freedoms.

On Sept. 13, Azerbaijan’s Central Election Committee (CEC) barred Ilgar Mammadov from the election. A genuine opposition leader, Mr Mammadov has been sitting in jail awaiting formal prosecution for fomenting anti-government protests in February.

Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, vote monitors from the EU’s official monitoring unit have never judged an election in Azerbaijan to be free and fair.

And Azerbaijan’s, rather beleaguered, opposition have already complained that Mr Aliyev has been campaigning before the official start, giving election-style speeches and handing out free apartments to journalists.

The CEC officially registered 10 candidates for the election, including Mr Aliyev and opposition candidate Jamil Hasanli. The other candidates are pro-presidential.

In an interview with the BBC on the eve of the election campaign start, Mr Hasanli described Mr Aliyev as an autocrat.

“We wish to move from authoritarianism to democracy through a normal election,” he said. As well as Mr Haslani’s strongly held views on Mr Aliyev, though, it was also clear from the interview that he thought Mr Aliyev would win another term.

(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)

Deadline approaches for candidates in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Election Committee (CEC) has registered 21 candidate nominations for the presidential election on Oct. 9, media reported. The CEC has to approve the nominations before the start of campaigning on Sept. 16. The election is likely to hand incumbent President Ilham Aliyev another five-year term.

(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)