The main subject of the meeting with the Azerbajan’s President Ilham Aliyev was the issue of providing the population with the election certificates, the co-rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Azerbaijan, the Swiss parliamentarian Andreas Gross said in his interview with the ANS TV channel on 14 October 2005, Trend reports.
According to him, there were registered cases, when one elector had been issued several election’s certificates, while a part of voters is not provided with them yet.
One of the postulates of democracy, according to Gross is the principle “One elector-one vote” and it must be kept. For ensuring this principle the use of inking on the voting day is needed.
В"The use of marking paint should not be interpreted as humiliation of the electors’ dignity”, Gross underlined, noting, for the last 10 years he took part in over 30 elections. В"In Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Ukraine I witnessed application of this method”,
the PACE co-rapporteur said, noting, at the meeting with the head of the Azerbaijan’s state he tried to assure that doing it Azerbaijan will demonstrate adherence to the democratic principles.
In the view of Gross, the authorities of Azerbaijan “may take a decision on use of inking at the last moment”. В"I am sure, during the talk with the President we could comprehensively explain to the President the necessity of this move and tried to convince him that he is to take advantage of this opportunity”, Gross noted.
At the same time, the co-rapporteur voiced also the opinion on the issue of the PACE attitude to political forces of Azerbaijan. В"There is no difference for PACE as to the parties political lines. If you show sympathy to any political force, you cannot judge impartially the situation. The standpoints that the West supports only the Azadlig oppositional alliance is not true”, Gross noted, stressing that “there is pluralism of opinions in the West”.