First CIS observers for presidential election to arrive in Azerbaijan mid-September

Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 26 /Trend S. Aghayeva/ The first observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) long term observation mission for the presidential election in Azerbaijan will arrive in the country in mid-September, the CIS Executive Secretariat told Trend on Monday. "In light of the mission's work in Baku, it is planned to create a general staff out of the CIS mission for the presidential election in Azerbaijan. The First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of the CIS, Vladimir Garkun will also participate at the commencement of the mission's staff, the secretariat said. The presidential election is planned to be held in Azerbaijan on October 9. The observation mission general staff will be headed by Yevgeniy Sloboda. The CIS observation mission for the presidential election in Azerbaijan will be headed by the Chairman of the executive committee and executive secretary of the CIS, Sergey Lebedev, the website of CIS Executive Committee reported. This decision was taken at a meeting of the council of the permanent authorised representatives of the CIS member states under the statutory and other bodies of the Commonwealth, held in Minsk on August 20. The CIS will send two missions to Azerbaijan in order to observe the election. The long and short term CIS missions will include approximately 250-300 observers from the Commonwealth countries. The missions will be formed openly and publicly on the basis of countries' proposals. They will include parliamentarians and diplomats, representatives of electoral commissions and executive powers. The monitoring of the elections will be carried out in accordance with the principles of political neutrality and impartiality and non-interference in the electoral process and in the state's internal affairs. The short term observers will arrive a few days prior to voting. The composition of both missions will be determined in the coming days by order of the chairman of organisation's Executive Committee, the Secretariat said. Azerbaijan holds presidential elections every five years. Azerbaijani citizens who have higher education, who have been permanently residing in the country for more than 10 years, who have not been convicted on a serious crime, not having any obligations to other states and those who do not have double citizenship are entitled to the right to be elected to the post of president of Azerbaijan. To date the documents of 18 persons were presented to the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan for their approval as presidential candidates and 15 out if these were approved. Signature lists were presented to them for the collection of more than 40,000 signatures to support their registration as candidates for the post of president. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az