CIS mission recommends Azerbaijan to reject finger-inking procedure while holding elections

"This norm can be rejected in the near future and due amendments can be introduced to the law", said Svetlana Orlova, vice speaker of the Russian Federation Council, at a press conference today, according to ITAR-TASS.

She said this norm does not meet the level of democracy development in Azerbaijan.

"Azerbaijan is a leader for democracy in the region", said Orlova. At the same time she noted that the parliament of Azerbaijan with its 90 years of experience is older than the parliaments of most European countries.

Russian CEC member Siyabshah Shapiyev also spoke against this procedure.

Moreover, the CIS observers pointed at the violations from the side of their OSCE colleagues during presidential elections. Thus, at some stations they were late for the calculation procedure and sometimes entered the secret ballot cabins, when voters were filling  in the ballot papers, which is a violation of the electoral code of the country.

"Unfortunately, the events, typical of some post-Soviet countries, including Russia, also occurred during the electoral campaign in Azerbaijan", said Alexei Ostrovski, chairman of the committee of the state Duma for CIS affairs.

"This is a situation when opposition candidates deliberately reject participation in elections or withdraw their candidacies during the launched campaign", said he. "The purpose of such steps is to create an illusion of the deficit of democracy among their western patrons and preserve their financial support", considers Ostrovski.

On the whole, the Azerbaijani elections were highly evaluated by the CIS observation mission. "We will recommend to other CIS states to assimilate the useful experience of the electoral bodies of Azerbaijan", said Mikhail Krotov, secretary general of the CIS interparliamentary assembly.

/Izvestiya/