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U.S. urges Azerbaijan to hold free elections and avoid provocations

08 October 2013 11:49 (UTC +04:00)

The United States encourages the peaceful participation of all people in Azerbaijan in the election process, and urges restraint and avoidance of violence or provocations by all before, during, and after election day,” said U.S. Department of State Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf at her daily press briefing in Washington while replying to question on the presidential election in Azerbaijan.

We also urge the Azerbaijani authorities to protect the fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.

To the question “is it your assessment that the government is properly guaranteeing those freedoms?”, Marie Harf said:

“Well, I think we’ve seen a couple reports on this. I think one came out from the OSCE just recently about some of the issues involved with human rights in this election. I think that report objectively reflected the positive and negative aspects of the campaign period. There have been some of each. So we continue to urge the authorities to make sure going forward that they protect these fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.”