"ELECTIONS" IN KARABAKH NOT RECOGNIZED BY ANY STATE

news.az
May 18 2010
Azerbaijan

Chief of legislation, legal expertise department of Azerbaijani
Presidential Administration spoke on the so-called "elections" held
in Karabakh.

"The so-called ‘elections’ in Karabakh cannot be recognized by any
state because Karabakh is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan", said
Shahin Aliyev, chief of department of legislature and legal expertise
of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan.

"No elections can be held in any Azerbaijani region without permission
of the government and the Central Election Commission", he said.

"The government’s position is that the elections are conducted
professionally in accordance with the legislation and not allowing
the violation of Electoral Code requirements", said chief of the
Legislation and Legal Examination Department of the Presidential
Administration Shahin Aliyev while taking stance on the OSCE
recommendations about the composition of election commissions.

He said there could be various proposals and formulas about
the composition of election commissions and there were different
experiences in the world. "Analytical investigation should serve as
a basis of claims to re-organize the commissions". Shahin Aliyev said
he was surprised at the OSCE’s proposal for AzTV to join the election
campaign because OSCE opposed what it recommended earlier.

Regarding the recommendations on freedom of assembly, Aliyev said
this process was regulated according to the legislation. "This law
was examined by the Venice Commission, OSCE/ODIHR many times and won
positive opinions. It regulates the freedom of assembly and demands
to coordinate this question with the local authorities. If the law
is observed it doesn’t mean that the freedom of assembly is violated.

Therefore Baku city authorities have enough arguments to allow or
not to allow the meetings".

Shahin Aliyev said there was an environment of dialogue between the
government and opposition and today joint discussions were conducting
on the OSCE’s initiative. The official said the opposition didn’t ask
the government for a dialogue. "If there is a constructive proposal,
the government is always ready to conduct dialogue with any political
force. The government is discussing the elections with the opposition
for more than a decade and the dialogue is continued".

Shahin Aliyev has spoken about the procedure of holding meetings
in Azerbaijan.

"The country has a law that regulates freedom of assembly. This law
has undergone the expertise of the Venice Commission and the Bureau
of democratic institutions and human rights and positive opinion has
already been received on this law", Aliyev said.

He noted that the issue of demonstrations must be coordinated with
the executive powers of the city or the district where the action is
planned under the law on freedom of assembly.

"The executive powers have enough arguments for sanctioning or not
sanctioning the demonstrations", he said.