“In this stage the European Commission for democracy through law (Venice Commission of the Council of Europe) cannot inject changes into the final opinion on the Elections Code of Azerbaijan by the OSCE and the Venice Commission, adopted in the 64th plenary session of the VC held on 21-22 October 2005,” Tatiana Mychelova, a spokesman for the VC secretariat, told Trend. She was commenting on opportunities of injecting changes to the text of final opinion in connection the decree on urgent measures linked with the preparation and holding of parliamentary elections, issued by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on 25 October 2005.
“The Venice Commission does not have right to initiate independent development of opinions. It is necessary to receive concrete inquiry from the Azerbaijani authorities or the PACE,” she underscored. The VC does not plan to draft any new opinion on Azerbaijan.
The official of the VC attributed the inking of voters’ fingers on the elections day as positive steps, whilst noted it was only one of the recommendations envisaged by the final opinion of the VC.
“The presidential decree takes into consideration definite part of proposals of the VC and OSCE, whereas the VC’s recommendations do not end with the application of inking on the voting day,” Mychelova stressed.
Speaking on the forthcoming visit of two representatives of the Venice Commission, Sergey Kuznetsov, an employee of the Elections and Referendum Division of the Venice Commission, and Peter Paczolay, a member of the Venice Commission from Hungary, Mychelova said that the Venice Commission is not going to develop any document on Azerbaijan as a result of monitoring of the elections by the PACE, as in the pretext of elections the VC representatives hold concrete mandate for consulting with the PACE delegation on legal aspects of the elections.
“They asked us to make conclusion on amendments to the Elections Code of Azerbaijan. We are looking forward for continuing cooperation on items that we disagree,” she underlined.