U.S. officials advised us to have fake elections: Ramiz Mehdiyev
Head of Azerbaijan's presidential administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev, who recently gave interview to a number of local news agencies in Azerbaijan, said that the U.S. officials advised the country to have fake elections.
"The US officials advised us to give 25 percent of votes to a representative of country's National Council, while leaving the remaining 74-75 percent to the candidate of the ruling party," Mehdiyev said. "As if having such votes ratio, the U.S. Department of State would have given a balanced assessment of the elections."
"Following this logic, had we not followed this advice, in all other cases the assessment would've been surely negative. The result is known already, and as we see it wasn't just a friendly advice, but a strict warning," Mehdiyev noted.
"It turns out we should have held fictional elections, instead of transparent, fair ones. And along with that - to add percentage of votes to certain candidates. Doesn't this showcase the insult of dignity of Azerbaijani voters' national feelings? The voters themselves decide for which political platform to vote, without any interventions," Mehdiyev underscored.
The high-ranking official also said Azerbaijan was accused of having only 22 days for election campaign.
"Of course this is absurd. OSCE's ODIHR considers it normal for France to have 15 days of agitational period. For example, this period takes 11 days in Denmark, 15 days in Poland, 20 days in Serbia, 20 days in Latvia, and so on," Mehdiyev underscored.
"International standards" to which opponents refer the most, are used as methods to rebut objective realities or a pressure tools, although no one can really explain the essence of these standards, he noted.
"When unable to find an answer to a specific question, representatives of international organizations each time turn to experience of Western countries - this is while we're well aware of how democratic are the elections held in those countries," Mehdiyev noted.
He said that these states do not invite international election observers, and international organizations are not allowed anywhere near the polling stations.
"As for falsification of election results, these scandals are known all over the world. These states, instead of having their own objective, democratic elections, claim to have the right to evaluate election processes in other countries, and this is done, as a rule, in a politically biased way," the official said.
He went on to add that there are enough examples of apparent violations and falsification of the election process in the U.S., UK, Germany , France and other Western states.
"The whole world knows about level of falsification in the presidential elections in the U.S. and about the scandals that accompany the electoral process in this country each time. And then they try to teach us how to conduct elections," Mehdiyev said.
Presidential election was held in Azerbaijan on October 9. According to the preliminary results announced by Azerbaijani Central Election Commission, the Head of State, candidate of the ruling the New Azerbaijan Party, Ilham Aliyev gained 84.55 percent of votes (3,126,612 votes).