Baku News

03 November 2005 [14:39] Today.Az - The spokesman of the US State Department Sean McCormack: "We put out a statement on October 26 concerning our hopes for the elections. We are watching the elections in Azerbaijan closely. It is something that our Embassy monitors on a daily basis". "I know that they [elections] have the attention of Assistant Secretary Fried and Secretary Rice who is also interested in how these elections unfold. At this point I think that we are not going to make any pronouncements. We are not going to prejudge how an election that has not happened yet has turned out and I think that it is fair," stated the spokesman of the US State Department Sean McCormack at a daily press-conference. He made this statement in a response on a question on whether USA agrees with the last report of the Human Rights Watch saying that the tactics of the Azerbaijani Government preclude the possibility of free and fair elections. S. McCormack saying that they have noticed some positive developments in Azerbaijan also mentioned that previous negative developments had already been spoken about: "I think at this point we would encourage the Government of Azerbaijan to follow on through the pledges that it has made, including having accurate voter lists, having reliable voter identification documents and then finger-inking to eliminate multiple voting. Once the election takes place we will have some final opinion not only about the run-up to the election but also Election Day". It should be noted that the US State Department welcomed and supported the decree "On urgent measures concerning preparation and holding elections to Milli Majlis" issued by the president Ilham Aliyev on October 26.