Karabakh denes foreign observers to monitor polls

Mediamax news agency
23 Jun 04

YEREVAN

International observers have never been invited to the municipal
elections in the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR] and therefore, the
Azerbaijani Central Electoral Commission [CEC] cannot be particularly
concerned about it.

The head of the NKR Foreign Ministry’s information department, Leonid
Martirosyan, said this in an interview with Mediamax news agency,
commenting on the Azerbaijani CEC’s intention to prevent international
observers from monitoring the forthcoming 8 August local elections in
Nagornyy Karabakh.

Martirosyan said that the NKR authorities had invited international
observers only to the presidential and parliamentary elections.

During the entire period of the NKR’s independence, Azerbaijan has
always attempted to prevent international observers from monitoring
elections in the NKR, but all these attempts have been vain, Leonid
Martirosyan said. At the same time, the official of the NKR Foreign
Ministry said that in their reports on the results of the presidential
and parliamentary elections in Nagornyy Karabakh, the observers highly
assessed the level at which they had been prepared and held.