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Azerbaijani Opposition Bloc to Re-Consider Election Boycott Decision

Politics Materials 2 June 2008 15:38 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 June / Trend corr. E.Babayev / The Azadlig bloc, which unites three opposition parties - Popular Front, Citizen and Development and Liberal, will discuss the issue with regard to boycott of upcoming presidential elections again. "The statement released by the bloc regarding the elections reflects the position of the Council of Chairmen. The statement will be considered by the end of June and will be officially adopted by the Assembly of bloc," Ali Aliyev, Chairman of the Citizen and Development party and co-founder of Azadlig, told to Trend .

The Council of Chairmen of Azadlig has released a statement, which says that the bloc will boycott the elections. " A play will be held under the name of 'Elections' in Azerbaijan in autumn, instead of actual elections. Bloc will not participate in this play," is stated in the statement.

The statement says that the proposals made by the oposition were not taken into consideration while the draft on amendments and supplements into the Election Code was developed.

Opposition has proposed to form election commissions on the parity basis, to provide the possible second calculation of votes, increase power of commission members and to create equal conditions for all candidates to hold election campaigns.

Aliyev said that the support of the Council positions by the Assembly do not cause any doubt. "Everybody sees that there is no political prevalent in the country at this moment to hold the democratic elections, and therefore we have made this statement," Aliyev said.

Aliyev believes that other opposition parties also may support boycott. "Currently, most MPs from opposition consider that there is no sense to participate in the elections after adoption of the draft into the Code. We hope that other will support us. From other point of view, our decision is not based on anybody's attitude to this statement. We just want to demonstrate to population and world community that we are continuing with our struggle. This step supports the public's hope," Aliyev stated.

The presidential elections in Azerbaijan will be held in October 2008.

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 nominated his candidature to the presidential post. The candidature of Ilham Aliyev will be nominated from the ruling New Azerbaijan party.

The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]

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