Azerbaijan: opposition disappointed with views of PACE and European Parliament, authorities disagree with OSCE's conclusions

In Azerbaijan, the opposition and the authorities have expressed different attitude about the opinions about the presidential election voiced by various missions of international observers. The staff members of the Jamil Gasanli's campaign headquarters in general support the joint statement of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) and the ODIHR and reject the joint evaluation voiced by the missions of the PACE and the European Parliament. Meanwhile, the ruling party does not agree with the evaluation voiced by the missions of the OSCE PA and ODIHR/OSCE. An official from the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan has threatened to reconsider the option of further co-operation with the ODIHR/OSCE.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the observation missions of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) stated that in Azerbaijan, the presidential election was were shadowed by restrictions on freedom of speech and, therefore, the country failed to provide equal opportunities to the candidates. Besides, during the election campaign, there were claims of intimidation of candidates and voters. At the same time, the PACE and the European Parliament have called the presidential election in Azerbaijan free, fair and transparent.

Khafiz Gasanov, an independent expert in the field of elections, the leader of the NGO "Law and Development", believes that the statements of the missions of the OSCE PA and ODIHR most actually reflected the situation at the election held in Azerbaijan.

According to his version, the Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC) is to cancel the results of the voting at the electoral precincts where observers noted violations and to punish the guilty persons.

Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union, and Stefan Fule, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, called on the Azerbaijan's authorities to take into account the recommendations of the international community and to take steps towards democracy and the rule of law.