Conference on “Elections and democratic development” of the Council of Europe held in Baku

The CE Secretary General Terry Davis, former PACE president and current member Lord Russell-Johnston, member of the Venice Commission, former president of Malta Ugo Mifsud-Bonnici, member of the parliament of Denmark Henning Gyellerod, head of the delegation of Milli Majlis to PACE Samad Seidov, CEC chairman Mazahir Panahov, director of the international affairs department of the President’s Apparatus Novruz Mammadov, director of the public-political department Ali Hasanov, ministers, parliamentarians, ambassadors, representatives of international organizations, heads of political parties, NGOs and mass media organs participated in the work of the conference.

The morning session was presided over by the head of the delegation in PACE Samad Seidov and the Minister of Justice Fikrat Mammadov spoke about special significance of upcoming elections for Azerbaijan in this session and highly valued holding of the conference from this point of view. He expressed his gratitude to the Council of Europe for its support rendered to Azerbaijan for conducting of free and democratic elections and informed that the country is going to these elections with more improved juridical base: “Changes made to the Election Code and the president’s decree “On improving the election practice” increased more confidence of the public to elections”.

The minister reminded that the registration of candidates will be completed on September 6, 2035 candidates were registered by now, 927 of them are non-party men and others are candidates of different political parties and election blocs.

The CE Secretary General Tarry Davis started his speech reminding that he is the friend of Azerbaijan. The Secretary General stressing that Azerbaijan made great progress, expressed his hope that the elections will be conducted in a fair and democratic manner and said that changes made to the Election Code and president’s decree “On improving the election practice” allows being optimist: “The Election Code is not completely perfect in any of country being member of the Council of Europe. However, the goal of the activity plan adopted by the Council of Europe in connection with elections to be held in Azerbaijan is to reconsider the Election Code, enlighten the public and see that the European values were accepted here. Especially I would like to stress that Azerbaijan is a democratic country and upcoming elections are vitally important for more development of the democracy in this country”.

Terry Davis stressed that the decree “On improving the election practice” issued by the president Ilham Aliyev, is the instructions for the persons who are responsible for elections: “Those who impede implementation of this decree will betray the government and president of Azerbaijan”.

Lord Russell-Johnston said that elections are an opportunity indicating that human rights are protected. He spoke about his election practice and said that he had observed 20 elections in different countries. Lord saying that elections held in Latvia were very memorable informed that generally no elector’s cards causing most problems exist in this country. Lord noting that this practice is not used in Azerbaijan also stated that he considers using ink for preventing falsification to be a satisfactory variant as well. Russell-Johnston also stressed based on the rapporteur of the CE Monitoring Committee on the political prisoner question in Azerbaijan Malcolm Bruce that great progress made in his field too. He reminded that according to the Constitution Azerbaijan, the candidate to the deputy has the right of immunity and expressed his hope that this will also be applied to the ADP chairman Rasul Guliyev. Lord considered that Azerbaijani women should take more active part in the elections. R.Johnston said that sometimes election are held imperfectly even in the European countries which are used to the democracy for a long time and cited as an example last parliamentary elections held in Great Britain.

Then discussions began and questions were addressed to Russell-Johnston. The Musavat head Isa Gambar accused lord for his optimistic explanation about whether elections will be held free and democratically and said that this optimism has no ground and those who falsified last elections were not punished. The director of the legal examination department of the president Shahin Aliyev said that the Musavat head had informed in one of his interviews that in case if they do not win 75 places in the parliament they will not recognize the results of elections. Then a short debate occurred between them. R.Johnston expressed his hope that elections will be held in a free and fair form: “You should listen to my speech more attentively. However, the existing Election Code of Azerbaijan and the last decree of the president allow conducting normal elections”.

Then the former president of Malta, member of the CE Venice Commission Ugo Mifsud-Bonnici spoke about the practice of Malta in elections. The former member of the parliament of Denmark Genning Gyellerod made his speech on the subject “Connection between the democracy and pre-eminence of the law” The conference is continuing.

/APA/