Friday, April 13 2018 13:22

ArmInfo. Baku doubts the fairness and objectivity of the initial report prepared by the  observers of the OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE PA and PACE on the results of the presidential elections in Azerbaijan on April 11.

As the head of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs  of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev said, representatives of the  observation mission were invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  where the ministry expressed strong protest in connection with this  issue. "We do not consider the initial report prepared by the  ODIHR/OSCE observation mission, the OSCE PA and PACE on the results  of the presidential elections on April 11 as fair and objective. In  this preliminary report, highly subjective statements and biased  political views prevail over the methodological and technical  approach to election observation. The statement that the elections  took place in a limited political environment is absolutely  groundless, during the pre-election process all necessary conditions  were created for conducting free electoral campaign of registered  candidates. It is wrong to point out as a defect the inaction of  marginal political forces because of their political weakness and  lack of support, or the passive election campaign of a number of  registered candidates," Hajiyev assured. At the same time, he  expressed his conviction that the voting process took place in  conditions of free attitude to candidates and voters, high activity  and in general in accordance with the requirements of the law.  Groundless, non-factual statements about non-compliance with some  procedures, lack of transparency and other shortcomings on the voting  day cannot withstand criticism. We demand that facts, if OSCE/ODIHR  have any. In the absence of obstacles to the work of more than 60,000  local and international observers and monitoring the process online  through 1000 webcams, this kind of information ca not be taken  seriously. When studying the preliminary report, one can observe  contradictory points between different paragraphs. For example, in  one place in the document, international observers express gratitude  to the government of Azerbaijan for the created conditions and note  the professional activities of the Central Election Commission. At  the same time elsewhere, they claim that the elections were not  transparent or some procedures were not followed. This cannot be  understood.  Such a position expressed by observation mission is,  above all, disrespect for the free expression of the will of millions  of Azerbaijani voters," Hajiyev concluded.

It is noteworthy that before the observers were summoned to the  Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, their press conference on the  presentation of the preliminary election monitoring report was  disrupted. When European observers tried to read their report at a  press conference, a group of "young Azeri diplomats" jumped up and  literally attacked the mission representatives, shouting various  insults and calling them "Armenian agents." European observers in  protest broke off the press conference and left the hall. The  observers during the presentation of the report stressed that during  the elections the basic rights and freedoms of citizens were  violated, and the electoral processes took place in an undemocratic  atmosphere, excluding political pluralism and freedom of speech.