European bureau of APA reports quoting Aghshin Mehdiyev, head of Azerbaijani permanent representative office to Council of Europe. Mr.Mehdiyev said that this is a very serious matter.

"If the repeat local elections are not conducted, credentials of Azerbaijan's local authorities representatives in Council Europe might be frozen in January next year. It is important to conduct these elections," Mehdiyev said.

The results of the 2004 local elections in Azerbaijan were annulled in a number of local authorities, and re-run of the local elections have not yet been conducted.

The Central Election Commission secretary Natig Mammadov told APA that there are 500 vacant municipal authorities at present.