Azerbaijan, Baku, 15 May / Trend corr M. Aliyev/ The US National Democratic Institute is concerned about the Azerbaijani court verdict to cancel the registration of the local Election Monitoring Centre (EMC).
"The verdict strikes against the democratic election process, as well as the citizens' right to observe the elections," National Democratic Institute reported on 15 May.
EMC, for the first time, submitted its documents to the Justice Ministry on 14 March 2006. The corresponding bodies from the Ministry refused to register EMC for five times. In February 2008, Centre received the registration. The organization monitored six elections and held trainings for 4,000 observers in Azerbaijan.
On 14 may, the Khatai District Court cancelled the registration of the Election Monitoring Centre (EMC). The Court has approved the lawsuit by the Central Registration Department and Notary Office of Justice Ministry to cancel the EMC registration.
Ministry explained that EMC registration was cancelled because the organization gave no detailed information about the founders, as well as Ministry was not informed about the new address of the organization, and the submitted documents did not include any information about representatives of EMC- located in Azerbaijani eight regions.
"Any action against the local monitoring of elections adds to the concern about the improvement of election process. We hope that justice will be achieved and the Election Monitoring Centre will be permitted to watchdog presidential elections in the country in 2008," the report says.
Mammadli stated he would make a court appeal against this decision.
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