Azerbaijan, Baku, 11 March / corr. Trend I. Alizadeh / Candidates for human rights and democracy for membership to the State NGOs Assistance Council at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration have already been elected. The NGO Group for Human Rights and Democracy held its meeting in the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences on 11 March.
The Group for Human Rights and Democracy elected Sahib Mammadov, head of the League for the Protection of Labour Right, Eldar Ismayilov, the head of For Civil Society, the Center for Independent Consultations and Assistance and Rauf Zeyni, chairman of the Center for Democratic Elections by secret ballot. One of these representatives will be elected member of the State NGOs Assistance Council at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration.
Membership to the State NGOs Assistance Council at the Azerbaijani President will consist of 11 members. The NGOs are divided into 8 groups and three candidates will be elected from each group (total of 24 candidates). The President will elect 8 members of the Council and three candidates will represent the state organizations.
A total of 2,500 candidates have been registered by the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan.
According to Tahir Suleymanov, the head of the Social and Political Department of the Presidential Administration, more than 500 representatives have appealed to the Presidential Administration to take part in the elections. "Some of them have not been registered due to not having been state registered with NGOs. Some 414 NGOs have been registered to take part in the elections," he said.
The election of the candidates will be completed on 19 March.