OSCE / ODIHR Mission Meets with Civil Society
Baku / 22.02.18 / Turan: The mission to study the needs of the OSCE / ODIHR met with representatives of the civil society of Azerbaijan today. The mission is on a visit to Baku on February 21-22 to familiarize with the pre-election situation and possible monitoring by the observers of the extraordinary presidential elections on April 11.
As the participant of the meeting, former member of the Central Election Commission Akif Gurbanov told Turan, during the meeting the pre-election situation, the electoral legislation, and the position of civil society institutions were in the center of attention.
In Gurbanov's view, the OSCE / ODIHR are well informed about the pre-election situation and the situation after the 2013 presidential elections and the 2015 parliamentary elections.
In the course of the meeting, the discussion focused on the state of civil society, pressure on the media, violations of the principle of separation of powers, and work by election commissions.
According to Gurbanov, the mission will prepare a report on the results of the visit within two weeks, on the basis of which the ODIHR will decide to monitor the elections or not.
"I got the impression that members of the mission are sufficiently aware of the situation in the country. On the questions they wanted to clarify, we gave the necessary answers," Gurbanov said.
Now the question is whether the arrival of the monitoring mission will be a contribution to democracy or not, and in whose favor will be their visit, when half of the pre-election period has already passed, Gurbanov said.
The delegation is headed by the head of the ODIHR election department Alexander Shlik. -06D-
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