“Extraordinary presidential elections in Azerbaijan were held free, transparent, and based on the principles of democracy”, Sergey Lebedev, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Independent States said at a briefing on the results of the snap presidential elections held in Azerbaijan, APA reports.
Lebedev noted that the elections were held based on the Election Code of Azerbaijan: “The extraordinary presidential elections held in Azerbaijan fully met the requirements of the Election Code.”
CIS considers that the main point of reference in elections should be the Election Code and not the documents of some amorphous organizations. They have their principles in elections held in Western Europe, and the USA. According to those principles, one of the candidates must be a woman, one black, one a member of the LGBT and one disabled. This, for us, is an unacceptable view.
Sergey Lebedev believes that the national Election Code of each state should be taken as its reference document, as the national legislative itself.
“We have never interfered in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. Our nations are friends and neighbors. We hope that this friendship relations will continue for a long time”, the Secretary-General added.