BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 21. A meeting of the
Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS (IPA CIS)
has been held in the city of St Petersburg of the Russian
Federation, Trend
reports, citing the Azerbaijani Parliament.
Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has taken part in
the event.
Speaker Sahiba Gafarova stated in her speech at the meeting her
thoughts related to the topics discussed. As she was talking about
Item 3 of the agenda of the meeting, she remarked that monitoring
concerned with elections and referenda in the CIS Member Nations
was one of the operating staples of the Assembly. The Speaker of
the Milli Majlis observed that elections ranked amongst the most
significant events in any country’s life in that they defined its
future. An objective monitoring mission present at any election
plays a tremendous role in the assessment of the degree of the
election’s transparency and democratic standards. As Sahiba
Gafarova emphasised, the Assembly monitoring units’ attendance of
elections in our countries is not merely a monitoring mission but,
first and foremost, a manifestation of solidarity and mutual
support.
Commenting also on the outcomes of the Inter-Parliamentary
Assembly international monitoring missions of the extraordinary
elections to the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic as well as
of the new Constitution adoption referendum in the Republic of
Kazakhstan, she recalled the active participation of the Members of
the Milli Majlis in both monitoring assignations.
Sahiba Gafarova mentioned with contentment Deputy Speaker of the
Milli Majlis Ziyafet Asgarov having acted as Co-ordinator of the
CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly monitoring group that had followed
the referendum conducted in the brotherly Kazakhstan.
A number of organisational matters and agenda items were
discussed at the meeting; relevant decisions were ultimately
made.
