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Council of Europe holds discussions on presidential elections in Azerbaijan

09 October 2008 17:20 (UTC +04:00)

APAâ€™s Europe bureau reports that addressing the meeting head of Permanent Azerbaijani Delegation to the Council of Europe, Ambassador Arif Mammadov gave broad information to the Committee of Representatives about the preparations for the presidential elections. He said Azerbaijani government was satisfied with the cooperation with international organizations in this field.

Council of Europe Political issue board director Jean-Luis Loran and special representative of the CE Secretary General to Azerbaijan Veronika Kotek said there was no problem in the implementation of the Council of Europeâ€™s Action Plan concerning the presidential elections in Azerbaijan and underlined that Azerbaijani government agencies were closely cooperating with the Council of Europe and both sides were satisfied with this cooperation. It was highly appreciated that trainings concerning the elections were held in the country and Azerbaijani government was cooperating with the international organizations for holding perfect elections in line with European standards.

Head of Ago group welcomed the infallible implementation of the Action Plan and expressed hope that it would help the Government of Azerbaijan to hold fair elections in the country. Moreover, he characterized the oppositionâ€™s non-participation in the elections in all three countries of the South Caucasus as their unawareness of the political rules. Therefore, he recommended the Council of Europe to conduct trainings to the opposition in this field.

Delivering speeches at the discussions, Secretary of the Venice Commission Janni Bukikio, representatives of France, Great Britain, Norway, Russia and Moldova highly assed the pre-election situation in Azerbaijan, arrangement of trainings and public awareness raising, invitation of a number of international observers to the elections, Azerbaijanâ€™s cooperation with the Council of Europe and other international organizations, attaching great importance to the Action Plan and stressed that all these factors proved how the Government of Azerbaijan were interested in just elections in the country.