Baku, October 10 (AZERTAC). AZERTAC interviewed Ali Hasanov, head of the Socio-Political Affairs Department at the Presidential Administration, to learn his views concerning the statement of the OSCE Office of Democratic Institution and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the results of its observation of the presidential election in the country.

The following is the full text of the interview:

- Mr Hasanov, today observation missions, including the OSCE ODIHR have expressed their attitude to the presidential election conducted in Azerbaijan on 9 October. Their attitudes differ from each other. Despite representatives of respected international organizations representing Europe, MPs, political and public figures and experts, in general, praised the election, the OSCE ODIHR took a different attitude. How can you explain it?

- As you said this presidential election was monitored by numerous international observation missions and large delegations of foreign countries. I must note that all necessary conditions were created for the observer missions to carry out an in-depth monitoring of the electoral process. Most international observers, gave a principled and objective assessment to the election and voting process, and said that the elections were mostly conducted in a free, transparent and democratic atmosphere.

I regret that in Azerbaijan, where the media operates freely, people enjoy the right of freedom of expression and assembly, the opinion of the OSCE ODIHR observation mission did not coincide with the views of European and other international observation missions watching the same election process in the same conditions.

You know, the fate of the election in each country is determined by the will of people.

Whatever the international organization thinks about this process, its opinion does not harm the legitimacy of the elected person, and the process continues in accordance with the will of citizens. Opinion of the observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights about violations, I should note, is not based on any serious fact, but it is based on false information disseminated by the opposition. This view signals a very biased approach far from objectivity. The position of the OSCE completely contradicts to the position of numerous observation missions which arrived in our country, including international bodies, about 1,000 observers representing the countries from Europe, America and Asia. As you know, members of PACE, the European Parliament, the CIS Parliamentary Assembly, BSEC, NGO Forum, TURKPA and other organizations at yesterday`s and today`s press conferences stated that the elections were held in a free, transparent, democratic and fair manner, as well as emphasized that they fully comply with international standards. These observation missions included MPs, political leaders, representatives of NGOs and experienced professional experts on the results of the observation. So it is safe to say that the position of the ODIHR does not reflect the position of countries in the OSCE space. Therefore, the subjective opinion of this monitoring mission is not only disrespect to the will of the Azerbaijani voter, but also contrary to the duties of the OSCE on impartiality, objectivity and collegiality to member countries.

- How will this position of ODIHR impact on further relations between Azerbaijan and the OSCE?

- I should note that such activities - the view taken on the basis of different standards, subjective approaches to serious political processes taking place in the member states - are causing serious damage to the image of the OSCE and negatively affect its relations with member countries.

Some time ago, the OSCE with its subjective judgment of the presidential election in Armenia already caused serious distrust among citizens of Azerbaijan concerning its objectivity. That is, the ODIHR deliberately turned a blind eye to the fact that the pre-election situation during the presidential election in Armenia was fully criminalized, in all regions the election campaign of the opposition was limited, one of the presidential candidates was shot and false information was spread, saying that in a country with the population of 2 million people, there are 3 million voters on the throw-in ballots in the boxes. By expressing the most “fundamental” and “warm” attitude towards the presidential elections held in the complete media harassment and gross violations of human rights, it gave a positive assessment.

As to Azerbaijan, I should note that initially it was felt that the ODIHR in its reports is using biased information. Of course, the institute that represents such a structure as the OSCE should not allow this and such approach clearly is not acceptable for us. If this continues, the Azerbaijani state in the future, continuing the previous relationship with the OSCE and other international organizations, will be forced to reconsider the issue of cooperation with the ODIHR.