Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 June /corr. Trend I.Alizade / The Azerbaijan Parliament has imposed a ban on unpaid agitation of candidates for presidency on the State television (AzTV) and radio. On 2 May, the meeting of Azerbaijan Parliament focused on the draft on changes and amendments into the Election Code.
Under the previous version of the Election Code, AzTV used to allocate 6 hours free air time to candidates in a week. Three hours were allocated on TV and three on radio. Furthermore, agitation materials by the candidates were also printed in the newspapers, which were financed by the state
A draft on improvement of the Election Code was devised as a result of discussions between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Venice Commission. The draft on changes and amendments prepared by the Government of Azerbaijan was positively assessed by the Venice Commission.
The changes imposed a ban on agitation in the State television. Previous Election Code envisaged six hours free-of-charge ether time (three hours on TV and three on radio).
The candidates will be allocated ether time only on the Public Television and Radio.
According to the project, the paid ether time for the candidates on the private televisions and radios' is limited in accordance with the Law on Advertisement. The TV channels may allocate only 25% of their ether time for the advertisement.
As a result of voting in the Parliament, 100 MPs voted for, 3 against and 1 abstained. The draft on changes and amendments to the Election Code was adopted.
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