“The CIS observation mission will also monitor the presidential election in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. Over the past weeks, 8 CIS observers together with the leadership of the mission visited the Azerbaijani regions, familiarizing themselves with the activity of the district election commissions and the polling stations,” Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Sergey Lebedev told journalists.
According to him, the CIS mission has kicked off its activity to observe the upcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan since January 17.
“We maintain close cooperation with Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) and also collaborate with other institutions involved in the process. We express our gratitude for the invitation and hope for continued trust in our activities. This is a great honor and responsibility. We have to provide an objective assessment of the election. First and foremost, we are not focusing on the international norms and demands, but the country’s legislation is the prime thing that needs to be complied with. For instance, the voting rights and laws are completely different in the U.S., the same with the European Union countries; every country has its own peculiarities. For this reason, we are upholding the laws applicable in the CIS countries. According to our observations, the preparations are conducted in line with the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Lebedev emphasized.