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Azerbaijanâ€™s parliamentary elections discussed in PACE

24 January 2011 22:51 (UTC +04:00)

Regarding the results of the parliamentary elections held in Azerbaijan the parliamentarians discussed Mrs. Anna Brasserinâ€™s report, deputy from Luxemburg who drew up it on behalf of the parliamentary committee.

Head of Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov said that more than 7.000 local and international observers had watched the elections: "Pre-election observations are very important to understand the election process better. As you know, PACE, OSCEâ€™s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament adopted a joint statement regarding this election. The signatory organizations noted to continue their cooperation with Azerbaijan for the sake of its future. This is a very important issue. Unfortunately, certain groups donâ€™t want to take into account that the elections were held in calm atmosphere. They didnâ€™t appraise all political partiesâ€™ participation of the country in the required way. At Public TV we almost allocated an air time to all candidates. They even didnâ€™t accept international organizationsâ€™ election-related reasonable opinion, and subjected us to criticism and blackmail. They did it not only to the ruling party, but also to international observers. In this regard, Iâ€™d like to thank PACE and its members. Because, in contrast to OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, PACE members who took part in the elections displayed more real side of the situation. From this standpoint, I think, these elections are the step forward. At the same time, we are ready to listen to this organizationâ€™s advice and recommendations and to cooperate with it."

Speaking about the subject a member of the Azerbaijani delegation Rafael Husseinov thanked all his colleagues who took part in the last parliamentary elections as observers from the Council of Europe. This observation can be assessed as the help for Azerbaijani people and state that promotes an important step forward in the path of democracy, - he said: â€œOn January 25, weâ€™ll celebrate the 10th anniversary of Azerbaijanâ€™s membership in the Council of Europe, on October, 2011 weâ€™ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of our independence. Half of its independence Azerbaijan spent in the family of CE. We achieved progresses in democratic reforms, establishment of the legal state, respect to human rights, and CE’s role in all this is undeniable."

R. Husseinov noted that for the period of Azerbaijan’s independence 4 parliamentary elections had been held in the country. "As a person participating in all these elections I can say that itâ€™s impossible not to see Azerbaijani citizensâ€™ growing public activity with every election as well as Azerbaijani governmentâ€™s stubbornness to adapt the elections to the international standards more. As a representative of the Council of Europe I, together with other members of our delegation, observed the parliamentary and presidential elections in a number of member-states. In this context Azerbaijan’s achievements have been reviewed and comparison with different countries is apparentâ€.

R. Husseinov said that the last parliamentary elections, held in Azerbaijan, are one more expression of the loyalty to the democratic values: "Today we once again announce that Azerbaijan will go in the path of democracy to the end. However, is there such country in the world, which claims that it has reached the end of the road?â€