Azerbaijan, Baku, 27 May / Trend corr. E.Babayev / The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) believes that the political capabilities of opposition are weakening day by day. "The social basis of the opposition is weakening," Arif Rahimzade, a member of NAP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission, stated to journalists on 27 May.
The draft on amendments and supplements into the Election Code is expected to be passed by the Parliament on 30 May. The draft on the changes includes ban on the canvassing in the state-owned media sources, and rise in the deposit account of the candidates from AZN33,000 to AZN300,000. The terms for the signature collection has been shortened from 35 days up to 10 days and the cancellation of candidate's registration has been eased, as a result of the changes to the Code of Administrative Violations. These changes have caused discontent in the opposition.
The presidential elections in Azerbaijan will be held in October 2008.
The Azadlig bloc, that unites three opposition parties - Popular Front, Citizen and Development and Liberal, stated that the bloc would boycott the upcoming presidential elections. Isa Gambar- leader of Musavat party, Sardar Jalaloglu-chairman of Democratic party and Mais Gulmammadov- Chairman of Green party of Azerbaijan, have already nominated their candidature to the presidential post. On 5 May, Eldar Namazov, Head of the Public forum 'For Azerbaijan, stated that he would also nominate his candidature to the presidential post. The candidature of Ilham Aliyev will be nominated from the ruling New Azerbaijan party.
Rahimzade stated that the situation within the opposition camp shows that they cannot reach to a common agreement.
Ali Aliyev, a member of the Azadlig bloc and Chairman of Citizen and Development stated to Trend that the opposition camp has enough social bases. However, according to Aliyev, the government attempts to limit the activity of the opposition.
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