Azerbaijani CEC disappointed with EU's criticism of presidential election

In the evening on October 22, following the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) expressed its disappointment with the statement of the EU Presidency on the presidential election in the country held on October 15.

We remind you that on October 21 the French Embassy in Baku disseminated the statement of the EU Presidency on the presidential election held by Azerbaijan on October 15. The document notes that a number of remarks made by the ODIHR OSCE and the Venetian Commission were taken into consideration.

At the same time, the EU emphasizes that the organization of debates at this election campaign, the process of voting and vote tabulation failed to meet international democratic standards.

"The Central Electoral Commission expresses its surprise with the use in the statement disseminated on behalf of the EU Presidency of the phrase 'the election failed to meet international standards', which is not used in reports of other international structures on the election as a whole, and on particular election aspects," runs the statement of the Azerbaijani CEC.

Further, the document references the statements of observation missions of different international bodies and particular countries, which give positive assessment of the election. In particular, the CEC quotes the joint statement of the missions of the ODIHR OSCE, PACE and European Parliament disseminated on October 16, 2008, which noted that "the election has demonstrated a significant progress from the viewpoint of compliance with the obligations before the OSCE and the Council of Europe, and with other international standards."

Further, the CEC quotes Andres Herkel, head of the PACE's observation mission, who has stated that in comparison with previous elections, this year's presidential election campaign has evidenced an essential progress in managing the election process.

The CEC's statement further references Carl Bild, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, who has expressed his regret of the refusal of a number of oppositionists to take part in the election and emphasized, nevertheless, that "we welcome the progress marked in the course of the election."

The CEC also refers to Javier Solana, Supreme EU Representative on Foreign policy and Security, who stated that the "election was held calmly, without any violations of the law and was well organized, more fair conditions were provided to the candidates from the opposition."

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Supreme Commissioner of the EU's European Commission for Foreign Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, has welcomed the election progress noted by the OSCE, and has positively appreciated the more favourable conditions for oppositional candidates to campaign, runs the CEC's statement.

"Thus, for unknown reasons, the statement disseminated by the Presidency of the European Union in its essence overturns the stand, on the one hand, of many thousands of observers who kept watching the presidential election, and, on the other hand, of the high-ranking EU officials," the statement concludes.

On October 22, the MFA of Azerbaijan also made a statement expressing regret with the statement of the EU's representative office on presidential election in Azerbaijan.