CIS monitoring mission sees only technical irregularities in Azeri presidential elections
MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - A CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly monitoring mission did not discover any significant irregularities in the presidential elections in Azerbaijan that could have had an impact on the election's outcome.
"Undoubtedly, there were individual shortcomings and irregularities, but they were of a technical rather than mass and systemic nature. Therefore they could not have had any impact on the free expression of the Azeri people's will in electing their president," Leonid Slutsky, the coordinator of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly monitoring mission, head of the State Duma monitoring delegation and head of the State Duma CIS affairs committee, said on Thursday.
The CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly mission included 15 parliamentarians from seven parliaments of CIS countries. The mission conducted long-term monitoring of preparations for the elections from August 1 to September 6. Its members visited districts where approximately 75% of the country's population live, he said.
"It can be acknowledged that preparations for the elections were conducted more substantially and carefully than ever before. If you compare this with the 2008 presidential elections and the 2010 parliamentary elections, when there were a huge number of complaints, including from various monitoring missions. I must say that an overwhelming majority of these complaints and shortcomings were eliminated in the recent elections," Slutsky said.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev garnered 84.59% of the vote in the Wednesday election.