Baku, April 13, AZERTAC

“I attended all the meetings of the election observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights held before the presidential election in Azerbaijan. All the members of the mission shared a common view on the election. However, the statement of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on the presidential election featured views that were completely different from our observations. In protest at biased assessment of the election, I resigned from the mission,” former political assistant to the election observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR) Vugar Ahmadov has told a press conference.

He emphasized that the report on the presidential election in Azerbaijan was prepared in advance and the deputy head of the ODIHR observation mission, Stefan Krause, known for his anti-Azerbaijani position, took an active role in its compilation.

“Together with ODIHR representatives, we conducted observations before the election and on the election day and made sure that equal conditions were created for all candidates,” he said.

Vugar Ahmadov noted that political affairs department of the Election Observation Mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights prepared a fair report based on its observations in Azerbaijan. “However this report was abruptly thrown aside and another report full of prejudice was proposed. It turns out, possibly, that there came a certain order from the center to change the report or the center itself sent an already prepared report to the mission. That is why none of the positive moments about the election that we noted during our observations were part of the yesterday’s report. Not only mine, but the positive points witnessed by other members of the observation mission were not featured in this report either. This means that the assigned task from the center about changing the report was executed. I conveyed my protest to the head of the mission Corien Jonker that the given report does not include any note made by the observation mission. In response, Jonker said the mission’s deputy head Stefan Krause’s report is sufficient. It was probably the same already prepared report sent by the center. Journalists were extremely right to object the biased reports of the observation mission yesterday.”

He said Khadija Ismayil, Emin Milli and others were in close contact with the mission. “No serious law violations were recorded at polling stations. Only minor points were recorded that could not affect the election results. This report is not even a critic, but a bias, slander. I could not accept this, so I officially appealed to the head of the observation mission and left it.”

Vugar Ahmadov also recalled his experience of observing the elections in Russia. “There too, the report of the organization on political issues was left aside, and the already prepared report was spread. That’s why I can confidently say that the report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan was prepared beforehand.” Ahmadov said he will convey his protest to OSCE’s headquarters. Ahmadov expressed his hope that the final report of the OSCE ODIHR observation mission will be objective and reflect unbiased points.