MINSK, December 13. /TASS/. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) plans to send its observers to the presidential elections in Azerbaijan and Russia, as well as to the parliamentary and local elections in Belarus in February 2024, CIS Secretary General Sergey Lebedev said.

"Yes, absolutely. Next year is the year of elections in the leading states of our Commonwealth. The first elections will be held. We have already received an invitation for the February 9 presidential election in Azerbaijan. Then parliamentary elections in Belarus. And in March, the presidential election in Russia," he said before a regular meeting of the Council of Permanent Representatives of the CIS member states, which is taking place at the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk.

Lebedev noted that the CIS Executive Committee "is already preparing to monitor these elections." "We have received an invitation to form a CIS mission and send it to observe these elections," he emphasized.

The Commonwealth Secretary General specified that only Baku has so far received a written invitation to send an observer mission. "We were told about it verbally, but we have only received Azerbaijan’s invitation in writing so far. They are the first to hold elections," Lebedev added.