AZERIS CONSIDER MAKING STIR BEFORE EVERY ELECTION IN NKR THEIR DUTY

PanARMENIAN.Net - In neighboring Azerbaijan they consider it their duty to raise a stir over legitimacy and legality of every election conducted in the NKR, stated Chairman of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Central Electoral Commission Sergey Nasibian when commenting upon the statements of the officials of Azerbaijan that any election conducted in Nagorno Karabakh were not valid, reported the NKR Foreign Ministry Press Service. In this connection, the NKR CEC Chairman noted that the people of Nagorno Karabakh had solved the issue of its status long ago, having declared in 1991 the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on the basis of international law and having confirmed it via a referendum December 10, 1991. Currently, the NKR is a de-facto established independent state, which legally holds presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections. The election to the NKR National Assembly, scheduled on June 19, 2005, is the forth parliamentary election in the history of its independent statehood. Three nation-wide presidential elections and the same quantity of elections to the self-governing bodies have been conducted earlier. As reported by S.Nasibian, today the republic's Central Electoral Commission and electoral district commissions realize all the preparatory and organizational measures aimed at the conducting of fair and transparent election meeting democratic principles. "Local and foreign observers, who watched the course of elections in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic many times, noted the higher level of elections in the NKR in comparison with those in Azerbaijan. It's likely that it is one of the reasons of the Azerbaijani party's sick excitement about the coming parliamentary elections in the republic", S.Nasibian said, noting that the elections in Azerbaijan itself, according to the evaluations of international observers, were invariably accompanied with gross violations of the generally accepted norms and did not correspond to the European standards. According to him, the NKR electoral commissions are very resolute to continue the good traditions and do their best in order the coming parliamentary elections become a regular step in the establishment of the Karabakh state, strengthening the statehood and further development of democracy. "The Azerbaijani party's anxiety that the elections will become an obstacle for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, are quite groundless. On the contrary, the presence of legally elected authorities of Nagorno Karabakh can only stimulate the negotiation process", the NKR Central Electoral Commission Chairman noted.