Kim Trovik: “Local administrative bodies should not interfere in elections campaign”

“Norway as a member of the international community is interested in the holding of open, democratic and fair elections and advocates all articles of the President’s 11 May 2005 decree on improvement of elections practice,” the State Secretary noted. (Trend)

He underlined that international liabilities undertaken by Azerbaijan are due to be fulfilled. The Azerbaijani authorities promised to do their best to hold the elections up to the international standards. Kim Trovik stressed that 2 long-term and 6 short-term observers would arrive in the country to hold monitoring of the parliamentary elections.

Touching upon the meeting with the representatives of the ‘Azadlig’ (Freedom) bloc, he noted that no request on support by the opposition leaders was studied. The Norwegian State Secretary also said that some problems were marked during the pre-election process, but they should be raised.

The same time Trovik stated that the sides discussed the development of the bilateral relations, particularly, implementation of joint projects in the oil and gas sphere in Azerbaijan during the visit to Baku.

“We were interested in the Azerbaijani position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he underlined. Trovik said that they had an exchange of opinions on the results of the Kazan meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian.

In the end, the Norwegian State Secretary stated that his country supported the Azrbaijan’s efforts on integration into the European Union and the NATO.