Azerbaijan, Baku, 3 June / Trend corr. E.Babayev / The Left Social-Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (SDPA) considers wrong the cancellation of deposit system for candidates envisaged in the Election Code.
"This is not a democratic step as nobody can guarantee that the collected signatures will be studied and assessed by the Central Election Commission (CEC)," Araz Alizade, Chairman of SDPA, told to Trend .
The draft on amendments and supplements into the Election Code of Azerbaijan was passed by the Parliament on 2 June. Under the current draft, the term of election campaign has been decreased from 120 days to 75 days, number of electorate signatures, which the candidates have to present to the Central Election Commission for registration, has been reduced from 45,000 to 40,000, prohibition has been put on paid and free agitation on TV, radio and newspaper- financed by the government, the election fund of presidential candidates has been increased from AZN 1mln to AZN 10mln and election centres in military units have been cancelled.
According to Alizade, even if a candidate will collect and submit all the required number of votes, even then CEC can reject the votes and create obstacles for candidates. "I have experienced such a rejection during the presidential elections in 2003," Alizade said.
Tural Karimli, a political scientist, told to Trend , that decrease in the number of signature required for candidates and cancellation of the deposit system would improve the conditions to fight in the upcoming presidential elections.
Karimli stated that it has been observed that the political tensions and activities amongst the population have intensified. "The Azerbaijani government does not want unstable and undemocratic image. As for western countries the democracy and stability is insurance for their investments into the country," Karimli said.
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