A video circulating in social networks allegedly shows a member of parliament from Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan (YAP) party attempting to sell a seat in parliament. The video posted on You Tube on September 25 displays MP Gular Ahmadova discussing with the former rector of Azerbaijan International University, Elshad Abdullayev, the size of a bribe required for securing him a seat in parliament.
According to Abdullayev, the video was shot with a hidden camera in the run-up to the 2005 parliamentary election. During a dialogue between these two persons with the director of Baku City Library Sevinj Babayeva as an intermediary, it is apparently said that “500,000 (without mentioning currency) have been given and an additional 500,000 are being demanded” for securing him a seat in the parliament.
Abdullayev said that he recorded his meetings and conversations with Ahmadova and that a CD had previously been sent to the Prosecutor’s Office along with a demand to launch a criminal investigation. However, the investigation process has just commenced after a recent appeal by Abdullayev, who is a political refugee in France since 2010, to the President of Azerbaijan. Baku’s Prosecutor General stated that it had initiated a criminal case for seizure of property in large amount through abuse of trust. An investigation group will be operating under the Prosecutor General.
The case has cast a shadow on the reputation of Ramiz Mehtiyev, the president’s Chief of Staff and Chairman of the State Anti Corruption Commission. His name was mentioned in the video as a person with whom Abdullayev had to “work.” In the video, Ahmadova said that they “have to do everything under the direction of Ramiz Muallim ... those who violate the agreement are punished,” citing the example of two former deputies from the ruling party who lost their seats in parliament because they switched their protector. “You are being led to the parliament by Ramiz Muallim, and you have to work for him,” Babayeva instructed Abdullayev.
In an interview to the state news agency Azertag on October 3, Mehdiyev called the video “a deliberate provocation ...The fact that my name was mentioned repeatedly in that video is a serious and deliberate provocation of someone ... with a purpose to blame the governmental officials and blacken their reputation,” said Mehdiyev. The “... case will have no results. I believe that the officials of the Presidential Administration have no involvement with such a dirty event ...”
Ahmadova stated that “both the video shooting and voice had been completely fabricated.” However, on October 1 Ali Hasanov, Head of the Department on Public Political issues of the Presidential Administration, stated that the first results of the investigation showed that there is “no doubt of the authenticity of the video, which means this footage has been shot indeed.”
Ahmadova was expelled from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party on September 28. A statement by YAP’s Deputy Leader Ali Ahmadov on the party’s official web site reads: “The behavior of Gular Ahmadova is not compatible with the principles and values ??of the party. By her fraud, Ahmadova damaged the reputation of the ruling party in the country. There is no doubt that ... Ahmadova has lost the moral right to represent the party in the parliament. This is the opinion of every member of the party.”
Political analyst Leyla Aliyeva said that the video came as no surprise to Azerbaijani society: “People always knew that proper parliamentary elections and elections in Azerbaijan in general have never been held and that there is bargaining around becoming a member of parliament. This video merely confirms such speculations.”
She thinks that the circulation of the video after nine years might be “part of struggle between circles in the government reflecting an intention to weaken the position of Ramiz Mehtiyev, Head of the Presidential Administration,” who is considered to be one of the country’s most powerful persons.
However, the video raised not only a corruption issue but also many relating to elections in Azerbaijan. In the video, Ahmadova, who represented the ruling party in parliament for the third time since 2000, made references to a list of parliamentary candidates approved by President Ilham Aliyev and her ability to revise it, adding that she could “take care of the OSCE and PACE.”
The blogger Emin Mili, who has been sentenced for criticizing the government, commented on his Facebook page that “It is very important to investigate in the EU, CoE and OSCE those politicians who are giving political support to falsified elections in Azerbaijan ... Gular Ahmedova who sells seats in Parliament for US$ 1 million has a point when she says that she can ‘take care of the OSCE and CoE.’ You may identify the preliminary list of CoE and OSCE officials involved in ‘election business.’”
Elmar Chakhtakhtinski, a U.S.-based blogger, wrote that “the most notable part of Mrs. Ahmadova’s talking in that video is not the now often quoted first half where she says: ‘There are many who want to be in parliament…’ No, the second part is the most damning: ‘… but there is one voter!’ Yes, one voter ... who is the only voter, usurping the votes of nine million people?”
Media reported that two Dutch Members of the European Parliament have appealed to Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to ask for clarifications from the Azerbaijani government.
“Are elections in Azerbaijan held in a fair and open manner or is trade in parliamentary seats a widespread habit on the eve of the elections? To know this is very important for us,” Gerben Jan Gerbrandy told BBC Azeri. He noted that if the Azerbaijani government could not give a satisfactory answer then the EU should demand an independent investigation.
Some opposition parties have called for dissolution of the current parliament and the announcement of new parliamentary elections.