Our latest OSINT report reveals how representatives from both democratic and autocratic states helped Aliyev’s regime create an image of international legitimacy around Azerbaijan’s fraudulent 2024 snap parliamentary election.

On September 1, 2024, the New Azerbaijan Party, led by President Ilham Aliyev, claimed a narrow victory in Azerbaijan’s snap parliamentary election. Although voting day itself was peaceful, the election process was far from democratic. Civil society and independent journalists faced harassment, forced emigration, and arrests throughout the campaign, while both international and domestic observers reported widespread electoral manipulation.

To create the illusion of credible international oversight, the Aliyev regime invited several hundred “observers“ to the election. Less than half of these “observers” met international standards for election monitoring. The others, despite clear evidence of widespread electoral manipulation, publicly endorsed the process as meeting “high standards,” lending unwarranted legitimacy to a fraudulent practice.

Key findings:

– 107 fake observers identified: Our report lists 107 individuals, including elected or appointed representatives from democratic countries who falsely validated the electoral process

– Election Commissioners as fake observers: For the first time in over a decade of tracking fake observation, we identified officials from Central Election Commissions (CEC) from ten internationally recognized states lending legitimacy to Azerbaijan’s sham elections.

– Trend of Collusion with Autocrats: This troubling trend of CEC representatives as “fake observers” extends beyond Azerbaijan. Our preliminary findings indicate similar patterns in Russia’s 2024 “Single Voting Day” (report forthcoming), highlighting an urgent need to rework the code of conduct of election commissions worldwide to prevent the discrediting of the institutions they represent.

Our OSINT report and our fake observers database provide a valuable resource for journalists, researchers, and advocacy groups seeking to understand electoral disinformation tactics, networks of malign influence, and learn more about our recommendations for democratic safeguards. 

Get in touch with Lukasz Kondraciuk, Head of Electoral Integrity at EPDE, via email: kondraciuk@european-exchange.org