Council of Europe to send elections observers to Kazakhstan

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will send its observers to monitor the forthcoming presidential elections in Kazakhstan, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports, referring to Foreign Ministry’s Press Service. According to the Press Service, State Secretary – Minister of Foreign Affairs Kanat Saudabayev had a telephone talk with PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu today. Mr. Çavuşoğlu said that PACE had decided to send its delegation to monitor the forthcoming elections, the Foreign Ministry reports. Relations of Kazakhstan and PACE are based on the Agreement on cooperation signed in Strasbourg in 2004. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an intergovernmental treaty. Its powers extend only to the ability to investigate, recommend and advise.