Mats Lindberg held press conference dedicated to fulfillment of CE Action Plan on parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan

He reminded that, roundtable on elections was held for the government and media representatives in July and as the result “Code of behavior of mass media of Azerbaijan during the election campaigns” appeared. M. Lindberg noted with regret that no all the mass media signed the document.

Calling on all the mass media to join the document, M.Lindberg also added that he will recommend Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis who will be on a visit to Baku next week to draw pro-governmental media, opposition-minded media and independent media to join to the code of behavior. He stated on behalf of the organization he represents that he will do his best to held monitoring of mass media on the election campaign: “We have not made decision yet, but I suppose the monitoring will cover 40 printed press bodies. There are enough professional persons in Azerbaijan to make independent investigation .As concerns the monitoring of TVs we shall have talks with TV and Radio Council of Azerbaijan regarding this”.

According to him, Council of Europe experts will give trainings for the members of CEC, district and precinct electoral committees, and make recommendations on how to organize the work of the commissions on 7-8 September. CE Venice Commission experts will come to Azerbaijan and will make recommendations to the CEC on how to work on the applications of complaint received after the elections. Venice commission experts will also hold trainings for the judges of Azerbaijan. They will be on a visit to Baku on 29-30 September and provide trainings on the rules of looking into the complaints. It is also planned to hold an event on prevention of corruption. In addition, pre-election trainings will be given to the police and Interior Forces on how to treat towards the people in order not to violate their rights and to preserve law and public tranquility. The Code of behavior of Azerbaijani police will be prepared in October.

CE Information Office in Baku has published books entitled “Codex of the best experience on election issues”, “Balanced participation of women and men in politics and in making important decisions with regard to the state”, “Women’s rights to individual voting”, “Media and elections” and distributed them with regard to the forthcoming elections. The office has prepared advertisement reels in 3 directions. The goal is to inform the voters about the election procedure, propagate elections and make explanation of parliament. Posters are made for this purpose too.

Assessing the current pre-election situation, M.Lindberg noted that, the process of registration is going on according to the rule and no one has been rejected yet. Stating that the process of delivering voter’s cards was delayed a little bit, the CE representative hoped that these cards will not give opportunity to the voters to vote several times on the Election Day.

Responding to the question on assistance to the CEC in making the list of voters of Armenian origin in Khankendi Constituency Election #122, he said that he received the appeal yesterday: “I must consult with the headquarters. I have to confess that this is a very difficult process”.

/APA/