​PACE delegation welcomes openness of Azerbaijani authorities

Baku. 23 September. REPORT.AZ/ A pre-electoral delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) visited Baku on 21 and 22 September 2015 to assess the pre-election process and the preparations for the parliamentary elections to be held in Azerbaijan on 1 November 2015.

Report informs, the delegation welcomed the openness of the Azerbaijani authorities and the invitation being extended to a large number of international organisations to observe the forthcoming parliamentary elections, including long-term observers from OSCE/ODIHR.

To the regret of the pre-electoral PACE mission, no agreement was reached between OSCE/ODIHR and the Azerbaijani authorities on the number of observers to be deployed and the methodology, so eventually this observation mission was cancelled by OSCE/ODIHR.

The PACE pre-electoral mission nevertheless insists on fully carrying out – even increasing – the PACE observation mission as scheduled, as observation of elections in a PACE member State under monitoring is an essential, even statutory, part of the PACE monitoring procedure.

Moreover, the final report of the PACE electoral mission is a necessary tool for the Assembly, both as a basis for political debate on the conduct of the elections, and for maintaining institutional dialogue with the parliament of this state.

A large number of independent interlocutors stressed that progress has been made since the last parliamentary election five years ago, and that the country should not be isolated.
The pre-electoral mission delegation was informed by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) about the different stages of the preparation of the parliamentary elections..According to the CEC, no complaints have been submitted to it so far.