Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 May / Trend corr. E.Babayev / The sum of the Election Fund for election campaign of candidates has been increased as a result of the amendments and supplements into the Election Code of Azerbaijan. "Under the amendments and supplements, about AZN 10mln will be allocated to the candidates for presidential post and AZN 500,000 -to candidates for parliament," MP Zahid Oruj stated to Trend .
The presidential elections in Azerbaijan will be held in October 2008.
The amendments and supplement were injected into the Election Code as a result of the joint discussions between the Azerbaijani government and Venice Commission.
According to the previous Article 191 of Election Code, only 1mln conventional unit could be allocated for candidates' election campaign. Previously, the candidates who collected only 3% of votes had to return the allocated amount back to the State Budget.
One conventional unit equal to AZN 1.1 and correspondingly 1mln conventional unite equal to AZN 82,500.
Previously, 75,000 conventional unite - AZN 82,500 was allocated to MPs for the election campaign.
The Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (DPA), which will participate in the upcoming presidential elections with its own candidate, considers that each candidate needs to spend minimum AZN 1.5mln in order to hold normal election campaign.
The Musavat party, which will also participate in the elections with its own candidate, said that the government should extend the funds for election campaign of candidates. Musavat proposes to increase the sum to AZN 500,000.
"However, the sum should be allocated to only those candidates who are confident enough that they will manage to collect votes in the presidential elections," Arif Hajili, Head of Musavat Central Executive Department, stated to Trend .
Musavat leader Isa Gambar was a candidate for the presidential elections in 2003.
MP Siyavush Novruzov, Deputy Executive Secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan party (NAP), stated to Trend that the sum of funds allocated for candidates' election campaign should be increased to AZN1mln.
According to Oruj, discussions regarding the amendments and supplements into the Election Code are expected in the Parliament by the end of May.
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