Today.Az » Politics » CE, EU and OSCE announce plans to support conduct of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan
07 April 2010 [13:32] - Today.Az
"We are pleased by the decision of all political parties to participate in the upcoming elections. We look forward to active participation of women in the upcoming parliamentary elections, both among the candidates, and the elected MPs, as well as during the municipal elections in 2009," Head of OSCE Office in Baku, Ali Bilge Jankorel said.
The assistance of these three organizations will concentrate on: strengthening the capacities and independence of the electoral administration and other relevant actors; supporting a media environment that would ensure independent, unbiased and pluralistic coverage of the electoral campaigns of all candidates; encouraging the appropriate exercise of freedom of assembly; and stimulating public interest and participation in the electoral process, including women.
The OSCE Office will conduct the following actions. It will organize educational workshops for youth and women's suffrage. It will create a hotline to provide legal assistance to candidates. In May, it will organize a workshop to discuss a law on political parties. It is ready to help the Azerbaijani parliament if they wish to make changes to the law. In June it will organize roundtable discussion on "Role of Media in Elections", Jankorel said.
The parliamentary elections will be held in Azerbaijan in autumn this year. The last elections in the legislature were held in November 2005. The Azerbaijani parliament consists of 125 MPs.
Head of the CE office Veronika Kotek and EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan Roland Kobia noted the significant progress made by Azerbaijan in recent years in holding free elections.
"Elections are an integral and very important part of democratic society, enabling citizens to participate in political life," Kotek said.
Reforms of domestic law and the electoral system must develop further, she said.
Ambassador Kobia said that if it is impossible to achieve progress at once, then a gradual progress from elections to elections is quite real.
"Stability in the country and long-term development depend primarily on the availability of pluralism and political dialogue in the country" he said.
He added that the EU welcomes the free and democratic elections throughout the world, and he is ready to help Azerbaijan in this issue.
Kotek stressed four categories provided by the above-mentioned organizations, to which a joint plan can be divided:
- legislative aspects, meaning assistance to the Council of Europe in the form of consultations, verification of compliance standards, if there is a request from the Azerbaijani government;
- management of the electoral process, which includes working with the CEC, trainings for the CEC employees, the review and evaluation of complaints, work with the court;
- the importance of media in a democratic society further increases during the elections;
- involvement of civil society to participate more actively in the elections.
/Trend/
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