Azerbaijan, Baku, 20 May /corr. Trend E.Babayev, J.Babayeva / Opposition of Azerbaijan is unable to boycott the Presidential elections. "There is enough number of unrecognized leaders in the opposition who want to participate in the elections, and hereby will decrease the importance of tactics of boycott," politician Zardush Alizade reported to Trend , commenting on the pre-election situation in the Country.
The presidential elections in Azerbaijan will be held in October 2008. The Azadlig bloc, which unites three opposition parties, is expected to boycott the elections, but this tactic is not supported by other opposition parties. Musavat, Umid, Democratic, Great Establishment, Green party of Azerbaijan, Classic Popular Front Party, Unified Azerbaijan Party and Democratic Reforms Party announced their intentions to participate in the presidential elections. Politician Eldar Namazov will attend the elections as an independent candidate.
The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) has announced that their candidate will the leader of NAP, current President Ilham Aliyev.
According to Alizade, lack of unanimous attitude of opposition towards participation in elections decrease the meaning of boycott to zero. "The tactics of boycotting are senseless. It needs to attend the elections. Boycott is real if everyone joins it. Strategic faults of the opposition leaders are that they could not avoid false opposition during the period since last elections. The competition amongst the opposition leaders is so high that they may raise anybody up to status of opposition. Therefore, the tactic of boycott is senseless," the politician said.
Politician Hikmet Hajizade said to Trend that the boycotting decision of opposition depends on additions and changes to the Electoral Code. "The Code contains undemocratic articles. Reducing the period of pre-election campaign and increasing the deposit account of candidate from AZN 33,000 to AZN 300,000 will give a boost to opposition's boycott," Hajizade said.
According to him, if the changes and additions to the Electoral Code are adopted by the Parliament, the opposition will not attend the elections.
"Musavat Party wants to attend the presidential elections, but even its chairman Isa Gambar can not find $300,000 if he wants," the politician said.
According to Hajizade, opposition's making unanimous boycotting decision may make it effective. "The opinions on boycotting differ in opposition. Part of opposition describes the elections as theatre and refuses to attend, but other part says that even if the elections are theatre, they will use it as tribune," the politician said.
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