Azerbaijan declines Council of Europe demand for changes to electoral bodies

ANS TV, Baku
1 Jun 05

[Presenter] A session of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe
in Strasbourg has finished. Azerbaijan has accepted some suggestions by
the Venice Commission, but did not agree on introducing changes to the
composition of electoral commissions. Sergey Kuznetsov, a member of the
referendum and elections department of the Venice Commission has more.

[Kuznetsov by phone in Russian with Azeri voice-over] We had meetings
all day long yesterday and worked on the project. We took into
account suggestions by experts and discussed what kind of changes
could be introduced.

Unfortunately, back in 2004, we suggested that the composition of
electoral commissions be changed, but nothing has changed since
then. Azerbaijani officials said that they would not discuss this
issue. So, we had to put forward these suggestions again.