At a press conference on April 13, Ahmadov accused the ODIHR of expressing a biased attitude towards the April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan.
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.
“Stefan Krause extended his congratulations in connection with the election held in Armenia on 2 April 2017. He did not hide his negative attitude towards Azerbaijan’s national leader Heydar Aliyev and the Heydar Aliyev Foundationon his pages on social networks. This is an indicator of his attitude towards Azerbaijan, and of course, it would be naive to wait for an objective report on the presidential election from such a person,” he said.
Ahmadov said that during his communication with Krause he personally witnessed his negative attitude towards Azerbaijan.
“I spoke with another member of the mission, Egor Tilpunov. He said that it was initially known that there would be violations during the election. I asked how he knew it and he answered that he had such information in advance and they already had the report prepared. I again asked how the report was prepared if the election had not taken place yet. He said that Krause had been to Azerbaijan before and knew everything. All this means that these people would present a biased report irrespective of their observations,” he said.
He added: “A spokesman for the observation mission also expressed a negative attitude towards Azerbaijan. All this gives us grounds to conclude that ODIHR observers visited Azerbaijan on a special order.”
Ahmadov emphasized that Khadija Ismayil and Emil Milli were in close contact with members of the ODIHR observation mission.
“The report alleges that serious law violations were committed during the voting. On the election day, I was in the office. 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, denigration. Some members of the mission also objected to this document. But they were expelled from the mission, and they were forced to leave. I could not accept this, so I officially addressed the head of the observation mission and left it. Members of the observation mission came under the influence of those who are known for their anti-Azerbaijani stance and serve the interests of Armenian circles,” he said
He went on to say that he will express his official protest to OSCE’s general office.
Ahmadov expressed hope that a final report by the ODIHR observation mission will be objective and will reflect unbiased points.
