The United States regret that ODIHR will not be observing parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan on November 1, US Ambassador to OSCE Daniel Baer said.

The diplomat noted that Azerbaijan was “ready to welcome” only six long-term and up to 125 short-term observers.

“This is incompatible with Azerbaijan’s commitment to recognize ODIHR’s independence in carrying out election observation,” he said.

“We regret that ODIHR was compelled to cancel its election observation mission to Azerbaijan because of the government’s insistence on limiting the number of observers, but we support ODIHR’s decision and reaffirm the independence of this key OSCE institution.”

Washington hopes that Azerbaijan will, in the OSCE’s spirit of dialogue among participating States, reconsider its position and immediately offer an unrestricted invitation for ODIHR and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to observe its November 1 parliamentary elections.