Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Five observers from the Council of Europe (CE) have appealed to the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan to monitor the re-run elections to the Azerbaijani Parliament on the 90^th Agdash constituency.

CEC Chairman Mazahir Panahov announced about this at a seminar on transparency in political party financing, organized by the CEC and the CoE in Baku, within the project titled "Strengthening capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Azerbaijan" on June 7.

The parliamentary election in Azerbaijan was held on November 1, 2015. At a meeting on November 17, the CEC considered the appeal of candidates registered for the 90th Agdash constituency and annulled the voting results of the region.

On April 12, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on appointing repeated election to the Parliament on the constituency. The election on the 90th Agdash constituency is scheduled for June 18.

Speaking about the activities of the political parties in Azerbaijan, Panahov stressed that the country has created all the conditions for activities of political parties.

He further noted that the activities of the political parties in Azerbaijan, in particular their financial reports, should be transparent.

Speaking at the seminar, Malena Mard, Head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan said that transparency in financing of the political parties in Azerbaijan is extremely important.

"The political parties play an important role in building a democratic society," noted Mard. "In some countries the political parties face problems, including the financial ones."

She added that the role of political parties is great in terms of formation of common political values, and in this area the EU can cooperate with Azerbaijan.

Currently, over 40 political parties operate in Azerbaijan. In order to get registered, a party needs at least the membership of 1,000 citizens of Azerbaijan.

The head of the EU delegation went on saying that Azerbaijan and the EU are working in all the spheres to expand the partnership.

"The EU's representatives are expected to visit Azerbaijan in connection with the energy projects in autumn 2016," she said, adding that a political level visit will be paid in the coming months as well.

The Azerbaijan-EU consultations on a new strategic agreement are still ongoing, according to Mard.

"The new agreement will basically cover all the areas of cooperation, so the consultations are taking much time," she said.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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