Azerbaijan, Baku, 3 April / corr. Trend S. Ilhamgizi/ The candidates running for presidential elections in Azerbaijan to be held in October demand the government to allocate not less than AZN0.5mln for their election campaign.
According to item#191 of election code of Azerbaijan, the state budget allocates resources for the election campaign of the presidential candidates and its amount should not exceed the one million divisible and conventional financial units (AZN1.1) (AZN100,000 (US$83,200)). The candidates polling less than 3% of the votes are required to return the amount to the state budget.
Some AZN12,000 was allocated for one candidate in 2003 presidential elections.
The Central Election Commission said that the amount of the resources to be allocated for the 2008 presidential candidates has not been determined yet.
"The Electoral Code does not shows the concrete volume of the resources, and any sum can be defined up to one million of conditions of financial unit," the CEC Secretary, Natig Mammadov, reported to Trend .
The opposition parties of Azerbaijan which decided to participate in the elections consider that at least half a million AZN should be spent on normal pre-election campaign.
The opposition Musavat Party stated that the State should significantly increase the amount allocated for the pre-election campaign.
"Musavat Party suggests allocating half a million of AZN for the pre-election campaign for the candidates who are sure to gain more than three percent of the votes," Head of party's administration said.
Deputy Executive Secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, MP Siyavush Novruzov, told Trend that he suggests increasing the amount of finance for the candidates for presidency up to $1mln.
Independent experts consider that the candidates for presidency should spend AZN 1mln to successfully hold the pre-election campaign.
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