Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.8
Trend:
The Council of Europe (CoE) has commented on the announcement made by its Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland Oct.7 about the organization's withdrawal from the Joint Working Group on Human Rights Issues in Azerbaijan.
The decision to withdraw from the working group is not connected to the monitoring of Azerbaijan's upcoming parliamentary election by the Parliamentary Assembly, which is going ahead, Director of Communications and Spokesperson for the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General Daniel Holtgen told Trend Oct.8.
Moreover, Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission Natig Mammadov told Trend that Azerbaijan is always open for participation of any side in observing the election.
He noted that the withdrawal of the Council of Europe from the joint working group shouldn't be associated with the election.
First of all, the people, but not international organizations should be satisfied with the election, according to Mammadov.
"We welcome those who want to come here," he said. "We have always created conditions for observing the process of voting."
Furthermore, Mammadov said Azerbaijan has never had problems with the Council of Europe regarding elections and expressed hope that there won't be any this time either.