Uh oh! Another democracy rising in Russian's backyard?

US welcomes move on elections by court in Azerbaijan.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States welcomed a court decision in Azerbaijan that annulled some electoral results.

"The United States welcomes the November 30 decision of the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan to annul results in five additional constituencies affected by electoral fraud in the November 6 parliamentary elections," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"This latest decision follows earlier actions by the Government of Azerbaijan to address damage caused by elections that did not meet international standards, which included overturning results in two constituencies, canceling results in ten constituencies and hundreds of individual precincts, and indicting some individuals suspected of electoral fraud," he added.

McCormack said "these are positive steps, but more needs to be done to address the serious concerns in the international community about reports of fraud and other irregularities.

[...] The opposition believes it won dozens more seats in last month's parliamentary elections than officials say they did, and official figures were often inconsistent with the results of a US-funded exit poll.

International observers, who characterized 43 percent of the vote's ballot counting as "bad or very bad," were due to issue a final assessment of the election later this month.