A meeting of the Council of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (CIS IPA) has been held in Russia's St. Petersburg, attended by Chairperson of the Azerbaijani Parliament Sahiba Gafarova, Report informs.
Organizational issues and agenda items were discussed at the event.
During the discussion of the final conclusion of the CIS IPA observation mission for the early elections to Azerbaijan's Parliament, Sahiba Gafarova expressed gratitude to all observer groups.
She noted that changing the election date to September 1 was mainly due to Azerbaijan hosting COP29.
According to her, this decision fully justified itself. Since parliamentary elections are one of the important events in the country's political life requiring mobilization of all state resources, it would have been impossible to properly organize elections during such a global international event with over 70,000 guests from 196 countries, including more than 80 presidents, vice presidents, and prime ministers.
The chairperson informed the participants that the parliamentary elections were also notable for being the first to be held across Azerbaijan's entire sovereign territory following the presidential elections in February this year. Holding these elections throughout Azerbaijan, including in the liberated territories, is a historically important event for Azerbaijan.
It was noted that during the elections, relevant state bodies created all conditions for citizens' free expression of will and ensuring full transparency of the electoral process.
All necessary measures were taken to conduct voting in accordance with current legislation and international standards.
She stated that the seventh convocation of Azerbaijan's Parliament remains committed to developing inter-parliamentary dialogue and will continue to focus on both deepening bilateral cooperation with friendly parliaments and expanding interaction within the Interparliamentary Assembly.
Speaking on this issue, Valentina Matvienko, chairperson of the Federation Council of Russia's Federal Assembly, and Natalya Kochanova, chairperson of the Council of the Republic of Belarus's National Assembly, conveyed congratulations to the Azerbaijani people and the president of Azerbaijan regarding the high-level organization of such a prestigious and important event as COP29.
They also congratulated Sahiba Gafarova on the successful conduct of parliamentary elections and her re-election as chairperson of the parliament.