PACE approved credentials of Azerbaijani delegation

As APA reports, taking into consideration that Azerbaijan is a young democratic state the representatives from Germany, Great Britain and Russia speaking in the meeting called on to approve credentials of the delegation for encouraging the hope of the Azerbaijani nation to democracy.

The co-rapporteurs Andreas Gross, Andres Herkel and Leo Platvoet who led the observers group in the elections made severe statements. A.Gross said that hard conditions existing in Azerbaijan for operation of the opposition did not occur in any other country in the world and noted that participants of peaceful demonstrations were treated very rudely. A.Herkel considers that the democracy was imitated in Azerbaijan. He said that the presented draft resolution's a minimal sanction used against Azerbaijan. L.Platvoet also said that the elections did not comply with the commitments undertaken by Azerbaijan before CE.

The head of the Azerbaijani delegation Samad Seidov, members Gultakin Hajiyeva, Aydin Abbasov, Ali Huseynov called on not to impede development of democracy in Azerbaijan. S.Seidov said that the election history of Azerbaijan never experienced such cases like participation of 2 thousand observers, procedure of finger-inking, registration of 2 thosuand candidates in the elections.

"Azerbaijan does not intend to turn its way from Europe", saying S.Seidov offered to review the issue of imposing the sanction after the repeated parliamentary elections.

The Turkish parliamentarian Movlud Chavushoghlu said that in parallel with shortcomings progress was also registered in the elections and reminded that this issue was also touched in the report of the PACE delegation and called on to vote for preservation of credentials of the Azerbaijani delegation.

The resolution was passed after 139 of 176 deputies voted for it and 2 amendments were made to it. The document says that urgent actions must be taken in order for the reelections to be held without any faults, and the newly-elected parliament must make changes to the Election Code. One of those changes is formation of election commissions on parity basis as proposed by the Venice Commission. If the reelections are held normally, this issue will be reviewed in a general form, if it is not satisfactory, the issue on credentials will be brought to the fore in the June session of PACE once again.