The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its disagreement with the statements and estimation of the results of poll, held in Azerbaijan on 6 November 2005, by the international elections observation mission, Trend reports in reference to Russian agency RBK. The mission included representatives from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the European Parliament and Parliamentary Assembly of NATO. They stated that the �parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan did not meet a number of commitments set by the OSCE and the Council of Europe’.
"We cannot share such an opinion,” the statement underlined. The Ministry said that it had reliable grounds to state on qualified idea on the results, as Russia quite seriously approached the elections in Azerbaijan.
According to the Ministry, the elections in Azerbaijan were held in line with the existing legislation. The Ministry recognized the existence of violation, while s\noted that no elections were held without breaks. The Russian observers also fixed such facts. However, the scale does not allow to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the results and their coincidence to common standards, or affect the results of the poll,” the same source emphasized.
The Ministry drew attention to the fact that the statement and a report by the international mission were publicized not only upon completion of the poll, but also prior to announcement of official result of the poll.