The CIS monitoring mission has given positive assessment of the
Azerbaijani parliamentary elections, the head of the mission, Sergey
Lebedev, said in Baku. He said that they had been monitoring the
election process since October 18. The mission consisted of 352
skilled observers.
Lebedev noted that observers were provided with all the necessary
documents and information. He said that presence of observers during
the ballot counting demonstrates the democratic nature of the
elections. Lebedev also pointed out the lack of violations during the
polling.
The first monitoring group of the CIS arrived in Baku on October 17.
The mission's headquarters were headed by Yevgeny Sloboda, as in
presidential elections in Azerbaijan in 2008.
There were two groups of observers, short and long term observers. The
short-term observers monitored the pre-election period, the other
group the election process.
Ismail Agakishiyev, Director General of Vestnik Kavkaza, head of the
Center of Caucasus Studies of the Russian State University for the
Humanities, and Alexey Vlasov, Editor-in-Chief of Vestnik Kavkaza and
deputy head of the history department of the Moscow State University,
were also part of the monitoring group.
The CIS will present a preliminary report today. The final report will
be ready in 2 months after the elections.
50.14%, or 2,480,205 people took part in the voting, the Information
Center of the Central Electoral Commission of Azerbaijan told Vestnik
Kavkaza.
