The visit of the Council of Europe (CE) Monitoring mission to Azerbaijan continues. On the first day of the 3-day visit the group, including the CE co-rapporteurs, Andreas Gross and Andres Herkel, held meeting with the special representative of the CE Secretary General in Azerbaijan, Mats Linderberg, the Ambassador and the head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights, Girt Arens, as well as representatives of the OSCE Baku office, Trend reports.
In the morning they met with the chairman of the Central Election Committee (CEC), Mazahir Panahov, the speaker of the Milli Majlis (Parliament), Murtuz Alasgarov, and the CE Ambassadors accredited in Azerbaijan.
The mission is expected to meet with representatives of the ruling party New Azerbaijan on Wednesday. They also plan to meet with representatives of the opposition bloc �Azadlig’ (Freedom) and �New Policy’, the leader of the Movement for National Unity, Lala Shovkat Hajiyeva, the head of the Democratic Reforms Party, Asim Mollazada.
The members of the delegation intend to hold meetings with the chairman of the Constitutional Court Farhad Abdullayev, representatives of the NGOs and mass media. In the Wednesday afternoon the mission will also meet with the Interior Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Justice Minister, the head of the Baku Executive Power, and President Ilham Aliyev. In the end of the visit they will give news conference.
It should be mentioned that the Monitoring Mission led by Dutch MP Leod Platveod also includes CE MPs Movlud Chavushoglu and Hanna Seversen, as well as two employees of the PACE secretariat.