"The elections held in Azerbaijan are not inferior to the elections held in Europe." In a statement to "pravda.az", the deputy of Milli Majlis, Malahat Ibrahimgizi, said this in response to his colleague Erkin Gadirli's statement that the elections in Azerbaijan were not held democratically.
Fakt Yoxla examined whether Malahat Ibrahimgizi’s claim was true.
In 2022, Economist Intelligence published the democracy index report of 167 countries for 2021. When preparing this index, 5 categories were taken into account. One of these categories is the "Electoral process and pluralism" index.
According to the "Election process and pluralism" index, Azerbaijan ranks 141st among 167 countries. Azerbaijan's index is 0.50 out of 10.
In the report, Europe is divided into two regions: Western and Eastern Europe. Among the 21 countries of the Western European region, Turkey ranked last with a score of 3.50. Apart from Turkey, none of the other 20 Western European countries had a score lower than 9.17 points.
"Electoral process and pluralism" index of Western European countries (Source: EIU)
Azerbaijan's indicator in this rating is 3 points behind Turkey, which was in last place, and at least 8.67 points behind the remaining 20 Western European countries.
Some of the countries of the Eastern European region are not included in the Council of Europe. Among the 28 countries shown in this table, Azerbaijan is ahead of only Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, and Uzbekistan.
The index is 0 in the first three listed countries, and 0.08 in the last one. Azerbaijan, which has the same score as Kazakhstan, lags behind the other 22 countries. Russia, which is closest to Azerbaijan, has an index of 1.75, Kyrgyzstan has an index of 4.33, and other countries have an index of 7 and above 7.
However, none of the countries where Azerbaijan is not far behind is a member of the Council of Europe. That is, Azerbaijan is behind all the countries of the Council of Europe included in this table.
"Electoral process and pluralism" index of Eastern European countries (Source: EIU)
Fakt Yoxla previously examined the claims related to the elections held in Azerbaijan. In the study published in 2022, it was noted that none of the presidential and parliamentary elections held since 2000 were evaluated as transparent and democratic. Non-transparency and violations were observed in the elections.
Thus, according to the "Election process and pluralism" index, the elections held in Azerbaijan are inferior to the elections held in all European countries.
Fakt Yoxla concludes that the claim of the deputy is False.
Note: While verifying the claim, the "Election process and pluralism" index for 46 member countries of the Council of Europe, including Azerbaijan, was taken as a basis.
