Russian Foreign Ministry Ombudsman for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law Konstantin Dolgov said addressing lawmakers in the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, that "in response to Azerbaijani authorities request to cut the number of international monitors, whose number was excessive, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights made an obviously politicized decision not sending their observers at all." Meantime, a non-constructive attitude by the director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights not to observe the upcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan is unacceptable, said the statement of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the OSCE dated Oct.29.

According to the statement, despite such a disrespectful attitude displayed by the ODIHR, at the last Council meeting on October 22, the Azerbaijani Delegation expressed its hope that the ODIHR director will reconsider his position and re-engage in good faith in consultations to find a way out of the situation until the elections held. “Last weekend we consulted again with the ODIHR and suggested them considering a deployment of a limited number of ODIHR experts to render a specific form of election related assistance to the Azerbaijani authorities on the eve of elections and on November 1, Election Day.

Regretfully, ODIHR once again refused to the request of the Azerbaijani side to provide assistance in upcoming election,” said the statement. Azerbaijan’s approach to the ODIHR has always been constructive and cooperative, said the permanent mission. The Azerbaijani side reiterated that if the assistance requested by the Azerbaijani Government in accordance with the OSCE decisions and based on the ODIHR mandate is not rendered on the Election Day, the Delegation of Azerbaijan will reconsider relevance of the ODIHR for OSCE.

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