US to prepare election statement

Washington will this week issue an election statement on Azerbaijani presidential election, "as soon as the process is over", TURAN's correspondent was told by the official sources.

The State Department on Monday refrained from commenting on the early assessments.

"We do have observers from the US Mission in Azerbaijan as well as US election experts that are part of the OSCE ODIHR mission that will be monitoring the situation on the ground. And after the elections are over, we will have a statement and make a comment on it then,"  Marie Harf, State Demartment Deputy Spokesperson, said during the daily press conference, October 9.

In the meantime, she referred the Department's previous call on the Azeri government as "there were some positive and negative parts of the run-up to this election."

"Certainly, we've called on the government to allow freedom of expression for folks to fully participate in the process."

When asked if there were violations during Wednesday election, she answered, "certainly, we'll have a comment on the elections. And if we have any credible reports about it, I'm happy to talk about it then."-025B-