Upon the invitation by Mr. Richard Soudriette, President of International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) on behalf of the Global Election Organization (GEO), Mr. Mazahir Panahov, Chairman of Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan (CEC) paid an official visit to the USA on March 25-31. CEC Chairman participated at the IV Conference of the GEO held in Washington. GEO Conferences were launched in since 1999. The previous conferences took place in Canada, Mexico and Hungary. The topic of this conference was "Every vote counts” and, during the conference, a lot of electoral issues were discussed and experience of different countries was exchanged. Nearly 200 participants representing electoral bodies and international institutions from 50 countries took part in the conference.

CEC Chairman also held a number of meetings in frame of the visit. Mr. Panahov met with Mr. Richard Soudriette, IFES President and Jean-Pierre Kingsley, his successor from June of 2007. In these meetings, present and future cooperation between two organizations was discussed. Furthermore, he also met with Mr. Sem Yanger, Chairman of Central Election Commission of the Great Britain, Mr. Zoltan Toth, Secretary General of the Association of European Election Officials (former ACEEEO) and representatives of other organizations.

Along with the conference, Mr. Panahov held meetings with Mr. Barry Lowenkron, Assistant State Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Mr. Thomas Adams, Coordinator for US Assistance to Europe and Eurasia in the US State Department and the representatives of a number of international non-governmental organizations of the United States.

Chairman Panahov ended his visit and arrived in Azerbaijan on April 2, 2007.