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CE Venice Commission developed final opinion on Elections Code of Azerbaijan

Politics Materials 14 October 2005 12:42 (UTC +04:00)

The OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission have prepared a final opinion on amendments to the Elections Code of Azerbaijan, the VC Secretariat told Trend.

The draft opinion was developed by By the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the basis of comments by Rumen Maleev, OSCE/ODIHR, Expert, Bulgaria, Georg Nolte, Venice Commission, Substitute Member, Germany, and Peter Paczolay, Venice Commission, Substitute Member, Hungary.

The OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission are of the opinion that, since the remaining recommendations of 2003, 2004 and 2005 have not been duly taken into consideration, the examined law does not fully meet OSCE commitments and Council of Europe standards for democratic elections, the document noted.

The Venice Commission noted that the amendments were insufficient to develop the necessary public confidence in the electoral legislation and practice
in Azerbaijan. Along with mostly technical changes, only a limited number of substantial amendments have been adopted in response to the 2003 and 2004 joint recommendations and 2005 Interim opinion of OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission.

Although some of the amendments are in line with international standards and a number of them even follow previous recommendations by the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, this cannot lead to the conclusion that the Election Code of Azerbaijan is satisfactory after the amendments of 26 June 2005

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