Baku, October 8. The long-term observation mission of the CIS Parliamentary Assembly has been in Azerbaijan since August 1 to monitor the run-up to the October 9 presidential elections. They visited Baku and regions of Azerbaijan, member of the CIS PA mission Oleg Lebedev told journalists.

He said that the mission members visited the election headquarters of the presidential candidates, met with their authorized representatives to learn about their opinion on the election campaigning. The candidates praised election-related preparations and good organization of the campaigning.

Lebedev said, "We met with citizens to learn their views. People express their views on the elections freely. There is a democratic atmosphere in the society. It laid groundwork for the free, democratic, transparent conduct of elections. Given this and other factors, we can say that the run-up to the elections meet international standards.”

Another member of the CIS PA observation mission, head of the CIS PA Council`s secretariat, Secretary General Alexey Sergeyev praised the long-term observation mission`s election-related preparatory actions by saying, "The observation mission has prepared the preliminary report on the pre-election situation. The report featured the issues regarding preparations for the elections and we think that the necessary steps in accordance with the legislation have been taken to organize the elections perfectly. We believe that voting will be organized to high standards.”

The CIS PA short-term mission is already in Azerbaijan and will watch the voting in over 120 polling stations across the country.