14 NAMAT ALIYEV v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT ... 99. Standing in such appeals must be granted as widely as possible. It must be open to every elector in the constituency and to every candidate standing for election there to lodge an appeal. A reasonable quorum may, however, be imposed for appeals by voters on the results of elections. 100. The appeal procedure should be of a judicial nature, in the sense that the right of the appellants to proceedings in which both parties are heard should be safeguarded. 101. The powers of appeal bodies are important too. They should have authority to annul elections, if irregularities may have influenced the outcome, i.e. affected the distribution of seats. This is the general principle, but it should be open to adjustment, i.e. annulment should not necessarily affect the whole country or constituency – indeed, it should be possible to annul the results of just one polling station. This makes it possible to avoid the two extremes – annulling an entire election, although irregularities affect a small area only, and refusing to annul, because the area affected is too small. In zones where the results have been annulled, the elections must be repeated. 102. Where higher-level commissions are appeal bodies, they should be able to rectify or annul ex officio the decisions of lower electoral commissions.” B. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) Election Observation Mission Final Report on the Parliamentary Elections of 6 November 2005 55. The following are the relevant excerpts from this report, published in Warsaw, Poland on 1 February 2006: “III. POLITICAL BACKGROUND ... The 6 November 2005 elections to the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan were the third parliamentary elections held in Azerbaijan since independence in 1991, but the first conducted after the adoption of the 2002 constitutional amendments, which eliminated the proportional list component of parliamentary elections. All 125 members of Parliament are now elected in single seat constituencies, in a single round of voting. The CEC registered 48 political parties and blocs for the 6 November elections. The New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), currently chaired by President Ilham Aliyev, has held a dominant position in government since 1993. On the opposition side there were two main blocs: 'New Politics' (YeS), formed by the Movement for National Unity, the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan, the Civil Forum for the Sake of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party as well as other political parties and NGOs, and 'Azadliq' ('Freedom'), which was formed by the parties Musavat, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (APFP) and the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP).