Ambassador Neil Holland thanks the ODIHR mission for observing the Presidential election that took place on 7 February in Azerbaijan.

The United Kingdom welcomes the fact that Azerbaijan invited an ODIHR mission to observe the Presidential election that took place on 7 February. We were pleased to contribute 10 Short Term Observers to this mission.

We also welcome the establishment of an Expert Group by the Azerbaijan Central Election Committee to consider election complaints. This election was calm and provisions to allow the Internally Displaced Population to vote in their historic constituencies have been positively noted. We also note the preliminary findings of the observer mission’s report, which indicate that the election took place in a restrictive environment without genuine political alternatives. Some serious violations were observed, some of which run counter to the 1990 Copenhagen Document. The United Kingdom respectfully encourages Azerbaijan to evaluate and fully implement ODIHR’s recommendations.

We would once again like to express our thanks to the ODIHR mission for playing an impartial and expert role in assessing the design and implementation of democratic processes in Azerbaijan and all OSCE participating States. The UK stands ready to support Azerbaijan in taking forward electoral reforms and improvements to the democratic process on the basis of ODIHR’s recommendations.