Azerbaijan, Baku, 7 April / corr. Trend S. Ilhamgizi/ Several candidates, who were nominated for the 2003 presidential elections, have not paid back the resources allocated to them for 2003 election campaign from the state budget, said Mazahir Panahov, the chairman of Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan in a press conference on 7 April.
According to item#191 of the Election Code of Azerbaijan, the state budget allocates resources for election campaign to the presidential candidates and its amount should not exceed one million divisible and conventional financial units (AZN1.1) (AZN100,000 (US$83,200)). The candidates gaining less than 3% of the votes are required to return the amount to the state budget.
In 2003 presidential elections, some AZN12,000 was allocated to every candidate. Only three percent of the eight candidates could cross 3% barriers.
According to Panahov, the law does not allow to allocate the resources to those candidates who have not paid back their debts.
He did not divulge the names of candidates in debt. "CEC is not interested that much in allocating resources to the candidates who do not pay them back," said Panahov.
The candidates who did not cross 3% barriers in 2003 presidential elections are as follows: Etibar Mammadov, Sabir Rustamkhanli, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Ilyas Ismayilov and Hafiz Hajiyev.