The report drawn up by the joint observation commission of the OSCE-UNO on the parliamentary elections and the constitutional referendum held in Azerbaijan on 12 November 1995, made reference to three types of serious irregularities: interference and pressure by government officials, great disorganisation in the counting of votes and, especially, numerous cases of multiple voting, with the approval of those in charge of the Voting Stations.
This 'family voting', generally cast by the head of the family in the name of the rest of the members within the family, is an example of the survival of a practice far removed from the basic rule of a free and equal election: the alienation of the individual right to vote in favour of the head of the family, in accordance with a traditional archaic norm.
According to the report, official acceptance of family voting, rife on the day of the elections, moreover strongly contrasted with the practice followed during the electoral campaign, when signatures in favour of candidates and parties were rejected when one person signed on behalf of various members of the family. The observation mission concluded that this practice cast a serious doubt on the justice of the elections; that in many senses it was not carried out according to internationally accepted standards and that the electorate was deprived of the full right to freely elect it representatives. Among the final recommendations is the development of civil education programmes, especially in rural areas, that would help to instil the idea of the practice of 'one person, one vote'.
