The USA find the latest decisions by the Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on preparations to the parliamentary elections a new step on the way of democratic development, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish said in a statement on 26 October 2005 at the meeting with journalists, Trend reports citing the ATV channel.
According to the American diplomat, the official Washington is ready to render any assistance to implement these decisions. В"The last meeting, held by the head of the state and the decree signed needs to be assessed as a new and positive move in the democratic development of Azerbaijan”, the Ambassador said, reminding, the necessity to use inking on the election day was one of the recommendations of the Council of Europe.
Harnish drew the attention to the fact, that such worldwide known media as Reuters and ABC also appreciated highly the last decree by the Azerbaijan’s President.
The head of the Azerbaijan’s representative office of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) James Gogen stated, with the purpose of holding the monitoring of the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan the US government prepares 40 observation teams, which will be sent to Azerbaijan shortly. В"Along with this, the US citizens will be also involved in OSCE ODIHR observation mission, however their exact number is not known yet, Gogen noted reminding, a lot of trainings have been held in the country under the USAID support, in which hundreds of the Azerbaijan’s citizens were involved.
В"We are interested in holding democratic elections an all our steps are aimed at ensuring more transparency of the electoral process”, Gogen noted in conclusion.
The Central Elections Commission is recommended to prepare the instruction in the shortest possible time on use of inking during the voting and put it on the discussion.