IPA CIS observers make a working visit to the Azerbaijan Republic

The IPA CIS Council Secretariat continues to form the IPA CIS international observer team to monitor the preparation and holding of the early presidential elections that will take place on 11 April 2018. To this date, 12 members of the Team are accredited by the Central Election Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic.

The IPA CIS observers are Deputy Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat, Director of the IIMDD IPA CIS Dmitriy Gladei and Head of the IIMDD IPA CIS Expert Team, Professor of St. Petersburg State University Stanislav Tkachenko. They are currently on a working visit in the Azerbaijan Republic as part of the long-term monitoring.

The IPA CIS observers visited the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic where they met with Head of Staff of the Milli Mejlis Safa Mirzoyev.

Dmitriy Gladei and Stanislav Tkachenko also visited the Central Election Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic and met with its Chair Mazakhir Panakhov. The observers presented the plan of work for the long-term monitoring and briefed on the activity of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat on the forming of the observer team for the short-term monitoring on 9-11 April 2018. The Chair of the Central Election Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic focused on the innovations in the work on voter lists, upgrade of the observation of voting and counting of votes through CCTV and new training system for members of election commissions of all levels.

In the afternoon the Observer Team members visited the Baku district election commission № 9 where they discussed with its Chair and members of the commission the current activity of the commission: verification of voter lists, equipment at polling stations, including CCTV cameras, areas for national and international observers and power supply in case of a shutdown on the election day.

Tomorrow, the observers will visit the city of Khachmaz where they will participate in the seminar "Youth Elects and Gets Elected" organized the by the Baku field office of the IIMDD IPA CIS supported by the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic and the Central Election Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic.