Giovanni Buquicchio: "I hope we'll reach final agreement on election legislation with Azerbaijan in March"

How do you assess the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Venice Commission?

We have been cooperating with Azerbaijan since the end of the last century. This cooperation started in 1996. We observe the development of democracy and economy in Azerbaijan compared with that period. The development of democracy has not completed, but I can say that there are great hopes for Azerbaijan's integration into Europe and becoming a democratic state.

What are the recommendations of the Venice Commission for Azerbaijan?

We have been working on the Electoral Code of Azerbaijan since 2000. Besides, we are working on the law on freedom of peaceful assembly. There is some improvement in the Electoral Code, but the problem has not been solved yet.

Two important problems should be solved until 2008 presidential elections. They are composition of election commissions and problems occurring during voting.

As to the composition of election commissions, there is no need to search a magic way. Azerbaijan should have a professional and permanent election commission like in France, Italy, Germany and in other countries.

But it will be difficult to achieve it unless mentality, democratic and political culture of Azerbaijanis change. Therefore we had to focus on the idea of establishing balanced election commissions with participation of different political powers.

The majority in the parliament wants to be represented by more members, and the opposition wants the same, besides, there are independent candidates.

The ideal variant is the commission formed on parity where all political forces are represented with equal number of candidates. But it is difficult to achieve it in this situation. Azerbaijan should make efforts in this direction.

We discussed the formation of election commissions on parity during our meeting with Azerbaijani delegation in Strasbourg in December, and these proposals are being analyzed in Baku at present. We will meet again and review whether official Baku is making efforts taking into consideration our recommendations. The other fundamental issue is election disputes.

These problems exist not only in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, this problem especially exists in the South Caucasian countries, what we call new democratic countries. This is a long process.

For example, if a citizen or a candidate wants to claim against the decision of election commission, there are possible methods for this. This is waste of time and the decisions are delayed. This process should be simplified. We offered the Central Election Commission to establish a legal service composed of professional lawyers to address these problems. This service can help remove groundless claims on election results and response reasonable complaints in a very short time.

This is one of the ways of solution. We can only show the way, it is up to the Azerbaijani government to choose more useful procedures.

I must also note Azerbaijan's significant initiatives in this field. For example, voters' lists are being specified at present and you can get acquainted with them on the Internet. This is really a great progress. But Azerbaijan should continue to work in this direction.

Mr. Buquicchio, what can you recommend concerning the law on freedom of peaceful assembly?

Problems always occur in Azerbaijan, mainly in Baku during rallies and protest actions. These kinds of events happen in other countries of the region too.

Evolution is felt in some other countries of the South Caucasus, they have made amendments to their laws and now their laws are more qualitative.

The law adopted in Azerbaijan in 1998 is not so bad, it is better than the laws of the new democratic countries. However, the law on freedom of peaceful assembly can be improved and it is welcoming that the Azerbaijani government displays strong will that is it intends to improve the law through cooperating with us.

We are waiting for Azerbaijani side to present a draft amendment to the freedom of peaceful assembly law. As in the Electoral Code, the main problem is the application of the law.

The second is the problem of venues for rallies. It would be better to review the case of banning rallies in 300 meteres of any administrative building.

Freedom of Assembly is a fundamental right. Qualitative law is not enough, the law should be applied in a qualitative way too.

It is very important to raise democratic mentality and culture in all citizens. It is not so difficult to work out a democratic law, while doing it we should benefit from the laws of other countries too. Every country has its characteristic features. Azerbaijan has achieved much progress since I got acquainted with it in 1996. I believe that we will be able to say that Azerbaijan meets the same standards and values like Italy and Germany.

Does the Venice Commission insist on making amendments to Election Code and law on freedom of assembly by the presidential elections?

We are more experienced in election sphere basing on some principles, and one of the principles is to commission election legislation six months before elections.

The amendments to the new election legislation should be done on time. We have begun to work on it and more achievements can be observed. We have already agreed with Azerbaijani side to present the draft amendment to us in late February or early March. I hope that we will come to final agreement in our meeting in early March. I believe that Azerbaijan's parliament will discuss the amendments and approve by autumn.

On what other laws can the Venice Commission cooperate with Azerbaijan?

We are always ready to cooperate with Azerbaijan. In the frame of the monitoring of PACE in Azerbaijan, Venice Commission can be requested to cooperate with the country in case of any shortfalls in law. I can not say exactly on what laws we can cooperate with. I consider that it would be better to reconsider Azerbaijan's Constitution. As Constitution is fundamental text it can not be changed often, but it should be reviewed. For example, Finland asked to cooperate with Venice Commission to improve the main law again. I consider that it is high time to balance various branches of power. Especially the relations between parliament and executive powers should be balanced. The parliament should have more authorities in legislation. I am frank friend of Azerbaijan, our mentality is close to yours as I am from the south of Italy. We understand each other very well. My wish is to be the witness of progress of Azerbaijan and thw whole Caucasus region. I want all the conflicts in the region to be solved. The existence of these conflicts poses obstacles to economic and social development in the region. I believe that Azerbaijan and region will speedily develop after the conflicts are solved.