Azerbaijan, Baku, 4 August / Trend corr. I.Alizade / Azerbaijani independent political scientists consider that the decision by many opposition parties to boycott the upcoming presidential elections will not have a negative affect on the results of elections. "Foreign states and international organizations will continue to cooperate with Azerbaijan as an oil country," Zardusht Alizade, an independent political scientist, told Trend .
Azerbaijan will hold the presidential elections on 15 October. The governing New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) nominated country's current President Ilham Aliyev. Bloc Azadlig uniting three opposition parties (Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, Citizen and Development Party, Liberal Party), as well as the Classic Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, decided to boycott the elections. Musavat, Civil Solidarity, Democratic and the Great Establishment party refused to participate in the elections. The Greens Party, the Popular Front Party of Unified Azerbaijan, the Musir Musavat, the Liberal-Democratic Party and Umid officially nominated their chairmen (Mais Gulaliyev, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Hafiz Hajiyev, Fuad Aliyev, Igbal Agazade respectively) for presidency.
The political scientist believes that non-participation of Azerbaijani leading opposition parties in the elections is political suicide.
Independent political scientist Rustam Mammaov told Trend that the opposition parties, which want to boycott the elections, have already lost the elections. Azerbaijani citizens and international organizations realize this fact. Boycott of presidential elections both in Azerbaijan and international arena is recognized as weakness and lack of skill. The step taken by opposition does not understand as serious one.
According to Mammadov, taking into consideration the aforesaid, boycott of the elections by opposition will not affect the results of the elections.
The arguments made by opposition regarding to boycott the elections give more reasons to participate in the elections.
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