Andreas Herkel: "We are mostly concerned over lack of the dialogue between authorities and opposition"

Regarding the statements by the Azerbaijani authorities on starting the pre-election campaign in July, the expert said that it was too late for the electioneering, as the Public TV has not started functioning. Herkel stated the necessity of the resolution of the issue on injecting changes into the Article on composition of the elections committees.

The next issue concerning the PACE expert was linked with free access of the NGOs to the monitoring of the elections. "We hope in the resolution of the majority of problems prior of the elections.

Touching upon the issue of political prisoners Herkel said that most of them have been released, while there are still inmates to be released and they would not be able to participate in the elections.

Harkel found possible the appointment of the special rapporteur for investigation of the murder of Elmar Huseynov, the editor-in-chief of the Monitor magazine after a relevant initiative.

He urged the necessity of investigating the activities of the arrested leader of the criminal group, high-ranking official of the Interior Ministry of Azerbaijan, Haji Mammadov.